Recent political conflicts signal an increased proliferation of image testimonies shared widely via social media. Although witnessing with and through images is not a phenomenon of the internet era, contemporary digital image practices and politics have significantly intensified the affective economies of image testimonies. This volume traces the contours of these conditions and develops a conception of image testimony along four areas of focus. The first and second section of this volume reflects the discussion of image testimonies as an interplay of evidential qualities and their potential to express affective relationalities and emotional involvement. The third section focuses on the question of how social media technologies shape and subsequently are shaped by image testimonies. To further complicate the ethical position of the witness, the final section looks at image testimony at the intersection of creation and destruction, taking into account the perspectives of different actors and their opposed moral positions. With an emphasis on the affectivity of these images, Image Testimonies provides new and so far overlooked insights in the field. It will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as Sociology and Social Policy, Media and Communications, Visual Arts and Culture and Middle East Studies.
Author(s): Kerstin Schankweiler, Verena Straub, Tobias Wendl
Series: Routledge Studies In Affective Societies
Publisher: Routledge/
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 195
Tags: Sociology, Social Media, Image Testimonies
Cover
......Page 1
Half Title
......Page 2
Series Page
......Page 3
Title Page
......Page 4
Copyright Page
......Page 5
Table of Contents
......Page 6
Notes on contributors......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 12
Towards a concept of image testimony......Page 14
Image testimony in the social media era......Page 18
Affective dimensions of image testimony......Page 19
Temporalities of witnessing......Page 20
In conversation......Page 21
Part III—social media practices......Page 22
Part IV—witnessing destruction......Page 23
Notes......Page 24
References......Page 25
PART I
Epistemologies of testimonies......Page 28
2 Credibility in crisis: contradictions of web video witnessing......Page 30
Unreliability of the witness......Page 31
The politics of witnessing......Page 32
The resurrected “videolow”......Page 34
Crisis readiness and the dilemma of strategic
witnessing......Page 35
New mediators and the datalow......Page 38
Notes......Page 40
References......Page 41
3 Affective images and the political trial......Page 43
Giving testimony in court: affective performance
in the time machine......Page 45
Images and their performative power as evidence......Page 47
The objectivity and affectivity of images......Page 48
The political trial......Page 49
Affective images and the political trial......Page 50
Notes......Page 52
References......Page 54
In conversation......Page 58
4 Fearless filming: video footage from Syria since 2011......Page 60
PART II
Affective witnessing......Page 70
5 “Moroccan Lives Matter”: practices and politics of affecting......Page 72
Connecting with others through images......Page 74
“Sousveilling” police violence......Page 75
A case of “hogra”......Page 76
Unfolding witnessing......Page 77
Amateur aesthetics......Page 79
Affective media witnessing......Page 81
References......Page 83
6 Drone’s-eye view: affective witnessing and technicities of
perception......Page 85
Drone apparatus......Page 87
The drone as affective witness......Page 89
Witnessing the predator empire......Page 97
References......Page 98
PART III
Social media practices......Page 100
Introduction......Page 102
Photographic witnessing and the Israeli occupation......Page 103
Palestinian photojournalists, witnessing and
Facebook......Page 108
Conclusion......Page 114
References......Page 115
8 Witnessing to survive: selfie videos, live mobile witnessing
and black necropolitics......Page 117
Black mobile witnessing......Page 119
Livestream and the emergency of the everyday......Page 124
From lynching spectacle to selfie reflexivity......Page 128
References......Page 131
9 Eye, flesh, world: three modes of digital witnessing......Page 134
Eye-witnessing and the ethics of kinaesthetics......Page 135
Flesh-witnessing and the gesture of discomposure......Page 139
World-witnessing
and vital signs......Page 143
Conclusion......Page 146
References......Page 147
PART IV
Witnessing destruction......Page 150
The genre of suicide bombers’ videos: a historical
perspective......Page 152
Suicide bombers’ videos as anticipatory
testimonies......Page 156
Postproduction as a form of co-witnessing......Page 159
Deconstructing truth-claims......Page 164
References......Page 165
Introduction......Page 167
The Islamic State......Page 168
Systematic and historical remarks on iconoclasm......Page 169
An overview of the Islamic State’s destructions......Page 170
Destruction and communication—three examples......Page 172
Notes......Page 177
References......Page 178
12 From Cape Town to Timbuktu: iconoclastic testimonies in
the age of social media......Page 180
#RhodesMustFall in Cape Town......Page 181
Brett Murray’s “The Spear” in a Johannesburg art
gallery......Page 185
Timbuktu 2012......Page 187
Conclusion......Page 191
Notes......Page 193
References......Page 194
