Lecture by Verena Straub at Saarland University

On 11 June, Verena Straub spoke at the Institute of Art History at Saarland University about the use of AI-generated memes as a political tool.

The lecture examined how AI-generated memes are becoming a political image tactic on social media – and in doing so are opening up new areas of tension between right-wing propaganda and subversive protest. Visual studies criticism has recently drawn increasing attention to the fact that AI image generation tools reproduce stereotypical and nostalgic ideas of Western societies and are therefore particularly suitable for the visual staging of right-wing, authoritarian worldviews. At the same time, it can be observed that the same aesthetic means are also used to create political counter-images – for example, to satirically exaggerate right-wing clichés or to design alternative political realities.

Using current examples from the US context, the lecture discusses the ambiguous, sometimes paradoxical image politics of many AI memes. This raises the question of whether satire is still capable of criticism in a media climate in which right-wing populist propaganda itself appears like parody.