Black Blocs: resistance or spectacle? A photografic investigation

• Grant number: 15/08951-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Akcelrud Durão
• Grantee: Mariana Toledo Borges
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In June 2013, massive demonstrations as not seen for years have taken over the streets of Brazil. In this framework, a group of demonstrators gained huge prominence in the media for his audacious protest tactic: the black blocs. This project envisions an investigation that aims to analyze a sample of photojournalistic coverage that extends from 2013 to the present day, widely disseminated by the country's leading newspapers, pointing the highly dialectical relationship of this group with both their way of indignant as with their representation imagery highly "arranged " accused in the photographs : on the one hand, they need the technical reproducibility to take existence in the society of spectacle , on the other , it is possible that the fetish of this existence in the world of images subvert the main reason that led them to practice their aggressive attitudes , turning them into mere propaganda elements, ie , in exchange for values that only serve to support the strengthening of institutions that they destroy. At the same time, we intend to counter the Rancière's criticism of the spectacle, which denies that there is a truth to be clarified behind the illusion of the world of images and points us in the place, the concept of dissent . In addition, we would like to use some Marxist concepts to analyze the photos, such as use value, exchange value and fetish as well as perform a more solid research on the Black Blocs and, above all, their relationship with the media and photography.