Effective visual communication has become an essential strategy for grassroots political activists, who use images to publicly express resistance and make their claims visible in the struggle for political power. However, this “aesthetics of resistance” is also employed by political and economic elites for their own purposes, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish from the “aesthetics of rule.” Through illuminating case studies of street art in Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Caracas, and Mexico City, The Aesthetics of Rule and Resistance explores the visual strategies of persuasion and meaning-making employed by both rulers and resisters to foster self-legitimization, identification, and mobilization.
By:
Lisa Bogerts
Imprint: Berghahn Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Volume: 29
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781800731493
ISBN 10: 1800731493
Series: Protest, Culture & Society
Pages: 348
Publication Date: 11 March 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: Political Power, Visual Communication, and Public Space Chapter 1. From Conceptualizing to Analyzing Visual Power and Resistance Chapter 2. Street Art: A Medium of Visual Political Communication Chapter 3. Setting the Scene: Street Art in Latin American Urban Space Chapter 4. Buenos Aires: Latin America - Now or Never Chapter 5. Mexico City: Another World is Possible - Democracy, Freedom, Justice Chapter 6. Caracas: El Comandante is Present Chapter 7. Bogota: Exploitation Ruins Life Chapter 8. Across the Cities: Strategies of Visual Meaning-Making Conclusions: The Media Are Theirs, the Walls Are Ours References Appendix A: Shooting Script for the Photo-Documentation Appendix B: Image Descriptions and Image Sections/Composition from the Detailed Analyses Appendix C: Code Frequencies
Lisa Bogerts is a Berlin-based political scientist, researcher, and editor. Her work focuses on political conflict and protest, visual communication, artistic activism, and power relations.
Reviews for The Aesthetics of Rule and Resistance: Analyzing Political Street Art in Latin America
This book will be an important intervention into the study of street art in particular, and of public art and artistic activism in general. The author approaches the subject with the rare combination of a scholar's critical intellect and an artist's aesthetic eye. * Stephen Duncombe, New York University An excellent book that captures the agency of street art interventions. The clear and innovative research methods represent a significant step forward in visual methodology, offering a lucid account of how to understand visual communication. * Aidan McGarry, Loughborough University
