https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3639-9650
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ABSTRACT
Despite the steady growth of authoritarianism, image activism is persistent and vibrant in Turkey. This paper examines how activists/artists used the production and circulation of political images to combat the institutional exclusion of oppositional voices following the Gezi protests (2013) and the attempted coup (2016). Using visual rhetorical analysis of images and in-depth interviews with courtroom painters, the paper focuses on ‘political’ drawings produced in enclaves of courtrooms and the strategies of image activists in visually narrating the political prisoners and/or detainees for wider networks, forming intersectional communities and creating spatial and digital visibility. In the context of the image activism in the post-Occupy Turkey, the passage from the digital to post-digital is based on, first, the top-down restrictive regulations in public and semi-public spaces and increasing police presence in places where activists previously met, and second, rising surveillance of the digital platforms, including the troll armies of the AKP government.
Acknowledgements
This research was partly funded by the British Academy Newton International Postdoctoral Fellowship (NF170302). I am thankful to Alev Karaduman for her help in accessing research participants. I am grateful to Olivia Glombitza, Paul Kubicek and two anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier drafts. Finally, I am indebted to the three image activists who have generously shared their time and visuals with me.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Note on the Contributor
Dr Ozge Ozduzen is a lecturer in sociology and communications at Brunel University London. Her research is in media activism, digital grievances, visual politics and urban communication.
Notes
1 Doerr, Mattoni and Teune, “Toward a Visual Analysis.”
2 Ozduzen and McGarry, “Digital Traces.”
3 Ozduzen, “We are not Arabs.”
4 Bulut and Yörük, “Mediatized Populisms.”
5 Aslan, “The Mobilization Process,” 2521.
6 Pearson and Trevisan, “Disability Activism”; Treré and Mattoni, “Media Ecologies”; and Mattoni, “A Situated Understanding.”
7 Lotan et al., “The Arab Spring.”
8 Kharroub and Bas, “Social Media and Protests”; Moore-Gilbert, “A Visual Uprising”; McGarry et al., “Beyond the Iconic”; and Jenzen, “The Symbol of Social Media.”
9 Alkazemi and Wanta, “Kuwaiti Political Cartoons.”
10 Huntington, “Pepper Spray cop”, 78.
11 Özcan, “Lingerie, bikinis.”
12 Khatib, Image Politics, 11.
13 Andén-Papadopoulos, “Image Activism,” 5017.
14 Andén-Papadopoulos, “Citizen Camera-Witnessing.”
15 Rose, Visual Methodologies, 22.
16 Aiello, “The ‘Other’ Europeans.”
17 Rose, “Teaching Visualised Geographies,” 283.
18 Brummett, Rhetorical Dimensions, xi.
19 Foss, “A Rhetorical Schema,” 215–9.
20 Özdüzen, “Bearing Witness.”
21 Bozkurt-Güngen, “Labour and Authoritarian,” 1.
22 Öniş, “Turgut Özal,” 114.
23 Lüküslü, “Creating a Pious Generation,” and Topak, “The Authoritarian Surveillant.”
24 Yilmaz and Bashirov, “The AKP after,” 2.
25 Castells, Networks of Outrage, 21.
26 Saka, “Social Media,” 2.
27 Bennett and Segerberg, “The Logic,” 742.
28 Gençoğlu Onbaşı, “Gezi Park,” 279.
29 Emre, Çoban and Şener, “Humorous Form,” 438-440.
30 Ozduzen and Mcgarry, “Digital Traces.”
31 Ozduzen, “Spaces of Hope.”
32 Derman, “Stand-in,” 199.
33 Topak, “The Authoritarian Surveillant,” 465.
34 Lüküslü, “Creating a Pious Generation,” 638–45.
35 Mattoni, “A situated Understanding,” 495.
36 Merrin, Media Studies 2.0, 48–9.
37 Akser and Hawks, “Media and Democracy.”
38 Yeşil, “Authoritarian Turn,” 240.
39 Duncombe, Notes from Underground, and Kafai and Peppler, “Youth, Technology.”
40 Croteau, “The Growth of Self-Produced Media,” 341.
41 Thorson et al., “YouTube, Twitter,” 425.
42 Andén-Papadopoulos, “Citizen Camera-Witnessing,” 756
43 Cramer, “What is ‘Post-Digital’?.” See also Thibault, “Post-Digital Games.”
44 Andén-Papadopoulos, “Image Activism,” 5014.
45 Özcan, “Lingerie, Bikinis,” 428.
46 Snowdon, “The Revolution Will?” 401.
47 Szolucha “Occupy in Ireland,” 257–8.
48 Ozduzen, “Spaces of Hope.”
49 Mitchell, “Image, Space, Revolution.” 9.
50 Eslen-Ziya and Erhart, “Toward Postheroic Leadership.”
51 Papazian, “Between Gezi Park.”
52 Allweil and Kallus, “Re-Forming the Political,” 749.
53 Casey et al., “Edge, Common Space,” 2.
54 Rose “Teaching Visualised Geographies,” and Visual Methodologies.
55 Alkazemi and Wanta, “Kuwaiti Political Cartoons,” and Mitchell, “Image, Space, Revolution.”