Memes are a popular source of online media. As such, they become tools that can distribute racialized and gendered narratives. While memes are often a source of shaming and devaluing Black girls, my research also explores how they can be used as tools to counter and disidentify with narratives. Using Hip-Hop feminism and trap feminism as frameworks, I analyze several memes to not only exemplify the hegemonic narratives of Black girlhood that circulate via memes, but to illuminate the possibilities for resistance and transformation via this technology.

“A Hip-Hop Joint: Thinking Architecturally About Blackness” beings by recognizing that hip-hop visual culture’s rapid global expansion over the last four decades complicates its lasting connection to blackness. Instead of arguing that blackness is the content of contemporary hip-hop, this project considers blackness as the aesthetic that coheres the diffuse genre. Thus, blackness serves a distinctly architectural function in hip-hop visual culture—it is the architectonic logic of the genre. Therefore, this project illustrates the value of alternative definitions of blackness; specifically, this dissertation approaches blackness as a distinct set of spatial relations that can be observed in the many places and spaces hip-hop is produced and consumed. “A Hip-Hop Joint” argues blackness and hip-hop exist in a recursive loop: blackness generates the spatial organization of hip-hop and hip-hop is so racially charged that it produces blackness. As a result, hip-hop images can serve as the site for unexpected encounters with blackness—specifically, visualizing blackness in spaces that are not occupied by actual black bodies. Because visual culture organizes space through the positioning of the black body, this dissertation argues hip-hop images that defy the presumed appearance and visibility of blackness are not only capable of reconfiguring image relations, but also the aesthetics of anti-blackness. This project relies on black studies, visual culture studies, and architectural theory. The visual objects analyzed include: music videos directed by Hype Williams, Beyoncé’s “Formation,” WorldStarHipHop.com, William Pope.L’s “Claim,” the trailer for Apollo Brown’s Thirty Eight album, and “Until the Quiet Comes” directed by Kahlil Joseph.

The overarching purpose of this study has been to problematise how visual practices and the mediation of affect is linked to the capacity to produce (new) perceptual realities, sensations and imaginaries, ultimately aiming to legitimate or counter-legitimate the hegemonic discourses and practices mobilised in the name of security. The first part of my thesis approaches this matter through an analysis of media cultures and discursive systems circulating within the court and the state military. Here, I discuss the impact of affect in the judicial-policial production of visible evidence (paper 1; published in the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law) and the state military (visual) narrative of threat (paper 2; published in MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication research). Additionally, as affect runs counter to hegemonic power relations as well as reinforces them, the second part of my thesis focuses on the way in which different resistance collectives cultivate affective dimensions through aesthetic practices in order to foster political attitudes that contest the established discourses of the (in)secure. Here, I examine the online activist group Anonymous’ visual political communication (paper 3; published in TripleC - Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society), and the Spanish movement Podemos’ visual and verbal discursive strategies (paper 4; forthcoming in Cultural Studies). In terms of theoretical and methodological approaches, I have my roots in, among others, Mouffe’s (2005) notion of conflict and (political) affect, Foucault’s (1980) concept of power/knowledge, and Thompson’s (1984; 1990) three-dimensional framework of ideology- analysis. In paper 1, my findings suggest that camera-produced images and technical and dramaturgical elements may have unintentional judicial consequences when they are read as evidence. I detail how this production of visible evidence can potentially stimulate and elicit emotional reaction, as well as discussing the degree to which pictorial crime evidence fails to be an instrumental and neutral representation of truth. In paper 2, my findings point in the direction where the military representation of the ‘Other as threat’ connects to aspects of economic globalisation and the (inter)national production of defence materiel. In article 3 (co-authored with Lindgren 2014) my findings suggest that citizen participation in public matters can be made engaging through the mobilisation of that which Anonymous calls ‘the lulz’; a tickling joy/pleasure (also, a sense of meaningfulness) of standing against power abuse through, for example, online direct action and culture jamming practices. Paper 4 explores the relationship between the affective and the visual using a broader security framework. Here, my findings indicate that Podemos’ discursive battle for social protection and economic security in a context of the crisis of political representation, is no longer framed through the traditional left-right conflict, but within the post- ideological (affective) articulation of ‘the new’ versus ‘the old’ and/or other discursive differences. I show how affect works as a potential for social change, by analysing the strategic production of a ‘We-Them’ discourse using Podemos’ take on social media and the media logic of mainstream television.

As a practice-led thesis comprised of drawing, sculpture, video, notebooks, and a written dissertation, this study by way of art making argues against the provocation that life sciences aided by the advances in visualizing techniques will hegemonise much of what there is to see and know about biological life. Historian James Elkins argued that non-art informational images were historically relevant considering the strategies scientists use for visualizing phenomena and W. J. T. Mitchell noted the impact of proliferation in image production together with computer technology as the epistemological shift from word to image and coined the phrase pictorial turn. Concurrently philosopher Gottfried Boehm deployed the term iconic turn to discuss the problematics associated with the power of images. I incorporate these insights to examine the affects of biomedical imaging as seen in artworks formed out of biologically sourced organic materials and techniques. Especially once grouped as Bio Art (Kac 1997) or organic media art (Hauser 2006) these artworks further accentuate the problem of representation and its relationship to knowledge and power underscored by the phenomena that biotechnology is changing perceptions of what the body is and can become. The written component of the thesis addresses these problems. It does this by critiquing visualization through the example fluorescent tagging as this technique exemplifies the most innovative and transgressive procedure for imaging biology in-vivo. I argue the following: the visualization of biology, like the mathematization of the surface of reflection pioneered by Ibn al-Haytham is not a problem because it shows Man’s technological prowess but rather because mathematization brings with it the legacy of ontological uneasiness with images in Western philosophical tradition. This tension persists and gets exacerbated especially in contexts where molecular scale visualizing aids the invention of novel life forms as art or laboratory creatures. To reconcile the paradoxes that emerge from critical analysis of the effects of biotechnology that have been discussed in binary terms such as natural or artificial, mimetic or real, I introduce to the lexicon of new media art and theory the concept of non-duality from Arabic philosophy formalized by Ibn ‘Arabi through the analogy of barzakh. In Ibn ‘Arabi’s scheme images are a part of the imaginal sphere and are not perceived as mimetic. Neither is the image given primacy in the formation of knowledge nor is the image given an absolute position of certainty. Instead, images are the intermediary and dynamic part of cognitive process that brings with reason knowledge and with knowledge, responsibility. Thus theorized, imaginal are able to facilitate the possibility to actualise the fullest comprehension of wujud that in translation is also the pursuit for knowledge that guides action. In this way informed by practice, this thesis dissolves the distrust of vision and proposes that scientific images are like art that can embolden the intellectual capacity for creativity and abstract thought.

This thesis is concerned with the ways in which whiteness and authenticity are manifested within contemporary visual culture in South Africa. The project begins as an artistic inquiry grounded in autobiography, which becomes an elaborate self-portrait narrated from the distance of the third person. My practice aims to address the trajectories that I am unable to articulate through my theoretical analysis. Through a process of solvent release printing, I explore the dualities of my own identity as African and white in an attempt to counteract the view that one negates the other. Part I attempts to provide an archive-able record of this practice. Part II shows that a long history of dichotomous art-historical practice has resulted in differentiated artistic pressures for black and white South African artists. I discuss the development of platforms that have contributed to the shifting of such classificatory trends without dissolving them completely, namely the first and second Johannesburg Biennales, Africus (1995) and Trade Routes (1997). In doing so, I trace how these events have troubled such stereotypes. Whiteness is identified as the overriding factor which allows the dominant discourse of Western- and Euro-centric ideals to remain prioritised. Brett Murray and Minnette Vári are discussed as examples of white South African artists who problematise whiteness by addressing racial fluidity, belonging, authenticity and identity. The theme of autobiography is reintroduced in the conclusion, where I argue that my own practice could be seen to mirror the strategies that each artist has employed to subvert their whiteness, and to build a case for accessing a multiple identity that is African in its ability to be diverse. I conclude that it is ultimately the artists’ performative use of their own bodies which allows them to discuss issues of representation without falling into the ideological position of the coloniser.

The main purpose of this thesis is the analysis of fictional characters, their role in Japanese visual culture and society in general. For a better understanding of the argumentation that follows in chapters 2 to 4, I first introduce the reader to the world of postwar Japanese visual culture, its most iconic works and characters. In the following chapter I observe fictional characters from a psychological and sociological standpoint, and highlight their significance for contemporary society. Chapters 3 and 4 are dedicated to some of the most significant subcultures in postwar Japan - the shojo and otaku. In each of these chapters I first offer a synopsis of their respective histories and proceed to analyze some of the main trends associated with these subcultures; trends that have subsequently led to a major shift in consumer culture and a significant popularization of characters, the character business and its products. I argue that the most significant phenomenon associated with shojo culture is kawaii, the aesthetic of cuteness. Kawaii is arguably one of the defining aesthetic categories of contemporary Japan and is closely linked to postwar visual culture and the character goods industry. In the case of otaku, passionate consumers and fans of visual culture and modern media, I have focused on...

Anishinabeg are not strangers to photography. Like many Indigenous communities in North America and elsewhere, Anishinabeg have a history of being pictured by governments, artists, and researchers working within the confines of colonial thought and practice. Not surprisingly, much of this colonial artwork has drawn considerable scholarly critique, calling attention to issues including misuse of power, cultural appropriation, assimilation, and misrepresentation. While this work continues to be significant in contributing understanding of how colonialism played out visually and materially, it may also unintentionally generate the misconception that Indigenous Peoples were only the subjects of the camera or had little or no authority over the photographic experience. Indeed, photography has its own history and place within the creative practices and traditions of many Indigenous Peoples. This research project explores the role of Anishinabe photography in the reclamation and continuance of Anishinabe stories, memories, and knowledge among Anishinabe families with ancestral and present day ties to Anishinabe lands in the northwest region of Ontario. As a result of imposed colonial legislation, Anishinabeg in this region have been displaced from their traditional lands, which has had direct consequences on their ability to retain their language, culture, and life skills. Today, Anishinabeg live in the aftermath of colonial violence perpetuated against their ancestors. The severing of land and kin connections has left many Anishinabeg struggling with issues including loss of identity and sense of belonging. Despite of these ongoing challenges, Anishinabeg have struggled to recover and maintain their knowledge, language, sovereignty, and spirituality through various personal and shared activities and initiatives. This research incorporates a research framework that integrates visual, narrative, and material strategies to directly confront the aforementioned colonial legacies of erasure and disappearance of Anishinabeg. It seeks to explore and privilege Anishinabe experiences and stories by weaving together various theoretical and methodological threads of decolonization, photography, place, visuality, materiality and memory. Through processual and creative ways of bringing together and experiencing photographs, it contributes to understandings of the significance of photography to Indigenous-led efforts directed towards decolonization, including cultural revival and continuity, sense of belongingness, identity, and caring for relationships among person, place and land. This research intervenes in Anishinabe lands, stories, and experiences that fall outside the jurisdiction of the Indian Act or “official” dominant versions of history and therefore provides a powerful counter narrative that seeks to both destabilize widely accepted colonial myths and contribute to Anishinabe sovereignty. Major findings of this research position Anishinabe photographs as highly relational and social things that may help configure and congeal a host of relationships between people, the land, and their ancestral past. It introduces new ways of working with and through historical family photographs—ways that are grounded in existing Anishinabe material and embodied practices. Through these practices it contributes knowledges about the past that can be acquired through these practices. As such, it offers new sets of relationships that strengthen individual ties to the ancestral past in ways that both honour our responsibilities to our ancestors and their teachings as well as our commitments to generations ahead of us. / Graduate

Esta pesquisa foi desenvolvida no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes Visuais, na Área de Concentração Teoria, Ensino e Aprendizagem da Arte, na Linha de Pesquisa Fundamentos do Ensino e Aprendizagem da Arte, da Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo. Objetivou investigar aspectos que decorrem das inter-relações entre Artes Visuais, cultura visual e formação docente, que compreendem a prática educativa e a prática artística. A partir destes pontos de tensões, aponta-se a imagem da moda em confluência com o ensino de arte na prática do estágio curricular supervisionado, podendo sugerir e impulsionar formas de ensino e aprendizagem autônomas e colaborativas na formação do artista/professor/pesquisador em Artes Visuais. Aborda-se uma reflexão teórica voltada para a cultura visual, bem como para as derivações sobre arte relacional e processo criativo. Desta forma a pesquisa pautou-se sobre alguns aspectos reflexivos da artografia, bem como sobre da arte relacional, entendendo um conjunto de práticas artísticas que tomam como ponto de partida (teórico e prático) as relações humanas e seu contexto social. / This research was developed in the Graduation Program in Visual Arts of the Arts and Communication School of the University of Sao Paulo, concentration area of Art Theory, Teaching and Learning, and research interest The Fundamentals of Art Teaching and Learning. It aimed to investigate the aspects that elapse from the interrelations among Visual Arts, Visual Culture and Faculty Formation, which comprehend the educational and artistic practice. From these tension points, it aims the fashion image in confluence with the art teaching in the practice of the supervised internship, being able to suggest and instigate collaborative and autonomous ways of teaching and learning in the formation of the artist/teacher/researcher in the Visual Arts. It approaches a theoretical reflection about the visual culture, as well as the derivations of the relational art and the creative process. Thus, this research was based on some reflexive aspects of the artography and the relational art, comprehending a group of artistic practices that take as initial point (theoretical and practical) the human relations and their social context.

Admitindo a produção estética como uma importante condição da existência humana, não é difícil entender a importância de se dar voz à juventude que tem uma produção poética rica, ainda desconhecida e pouco explorada à seu favor. Dar voz, aqui, sobretudo às suas imagens visuais, criar oportunidades de explorar a eloquência e as significações dessa literacia visual específica (Gil, 2011) e dar ouvidos ao que nos gritam tais imagens. A pagada aqui defendida se estende aos gadgets, às telas de celular, computadores, videoclipes, games, mangás, entre tantas outras fontes visuais e comportamentais. Assim, no permanente processo de ressignificação da escola, nos parece promissor o máximo aproveitamento das imagens que constituem a cultura visual que envolve o cotidiano dos estudantes. Esperamos que esta pesquisa mostre um pouco da riqueza, força ou energia cultural que existe no universo da pichação e a pertinência de sua reflexão em sala de aula como um caminho de elucidação não apenas dos seus aspectos estéticos e plásticos mas, também redefinir o papel político da afirmação de padrões estético-culturais e assim fortalecer o diálogo com os jovens estudantes periferizados / Thinking about the production of these young people as a necessary way to get noticed, or rather, to have their thoughts recorded in a metropolis that was not designed for them, but that they must also belong to them, we tried to carry this discussion to the classroom without the pretense of being pedagogical or regulate graffiti, but understand it better as a resource to reach these visual producers. And so do the most properly possible to the teaching work. Assuming production aesthetics as an important condition of human existence, it is not difficult to understand the importance of giving voice to youth who have a rich poetic production, unknown and unexplored to your favor. Giving voice here, especially to its visual images, creating opportunities to explore the eloquence and the meanings that "visual literacy" specific (Gil, 2011) and to listen to what scream such images. A 'paid' defended here extends to gadgets to mobile screens, computers, video games, manga, among many other behavioral and visual sources. Thus, the ongoing process of reframing the school, seems the most promising use of images that constitute the visual culture that surrounds the daily lives of students. We hope this research show a bit of wealth, power or cultural energy that exists in the universe of the graffiti and the relevance of its reflection in the classroom as a way of clarifying not only its aesthetic and plastic but also redefine the role of political affirmation of cultural-aesthetic standards and thus strengthen the dialogue with young students from the urban periphery

In this narrative study, I explore the transformative visual cultural dialogue behind the sight of the veil or veiled women in Denton, Texas as a Western culture. The narrative is constructed from the experiences of three Western non-Muslim women participants who wore the veil publicly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, especially Denton, Texas, for about two weeks, in the spring of 2014. The main question for this study is: How do veiled Western women incite transformative visual cultural dialogue and ideas concerning veiled women? To gather rich data to answer the study's question, I utilized qualitative narrative inquiry to explore the transformative dialogue that the veil, as a visual culture object, can incite in non-Muslim Western women's narratives. The study involves three participants who are non-Muslim American women who voluntarily wore the veil in public and recorded their own and other's reactions. The participants' interviews and diaries demonstrated that the veil incited a particular perceptive dialogue and often transferred negative meanings. For example, the sight of the veil suggested the notion of being Muslim, and consequently, the ideas of not belonging. The reactions the participants received were either negative verbal interactions or physical ones, both of which are limited in this study to face gestures or some form of negative body language that is meant to be a message of disliking. In summation, this study shows that the women's veil is a visual culture symbol that transfers negative meaning in the DFW area in Texas.