Performance Constellations

Memory and Event in Digitally Enabled Protests in the Americas

Bibliographic Data

ID12370195
AuthorsMarcela Fuentes (0000-0002-4094-2073, Etudes romanes, corresponding author), Marcela A Fuentes
Year2014
Volume35
Issue1
Pages24-42
Publication date2014-11-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueText and Performance Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1046-2937 • E-ISSN: 1479-5760
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10462937.2014.975268
OpenAlexW2014236431
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited27

This essay analyzes the development of the relationship between performance and digital media within protest movements in the Americas. I track digital media's role in constituting what I call "performance constellations." Performance constellations complicate previous definitions of performance as acts of transfer in order to account for hybrid, networked, and decentered protest performances. Focusing on 1990s hacktivism within the Zapatista rebellion and on social media practices during the 2011 Chilean student protests, I demonstrate that by dis-locating bodies and events, performance constellations constitute important reworkings of time and space outside of neoliberal management.Keywords: Performative protestDigital activismDistributed democracyZombie flash mobsNetworked culture She is also a performer and dramaturge. I want to thank the anonymous readers of this essay for their invaluable comments. I am also grateful to the students and colleagues who offered insightful responses to this piece at various instances of its development.She is also a performer and dramaturge. I want to thank the anonymous readers of this essay for their invaluable comments. I am also grateful to the students and colleagues who offered insightful responses to this piece at various instances of its development.Notes[1] "Hacktivism" is a portmanteau combining the words "hack" and "activism" to denote activist implementations of digital tools for social change, in particular those that disrupt websites and servers, altering the technological efficiency of institutions and corporations.[2] Brian Martin provides a useful contextualization of Sharp's work addressing the controversies surrounding his organization, the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI). Martin explains that critics have raised troubling questions about Sharp's real affiliations and motives as the AEI has received funding from elite US power groups. Serbia and Venezuela are cited as sites where the AEI has conducted workshops and consultation sessions in support of US-funded opposition groups. This is a valid cautionary note, particularly because of the evidence provided by critics. However, Martin's balanced account seems to distinguish between Sharp's conceptualization of nonviolent methods and their possible applications contingent to the real interests behind them.[3] #yosoy132, called by the media the Mexican Spring or the Mexican Occupy Movement, is a student-led social movement that originated in May 2012 when 131 students were discredited by then-presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto for drawing attention to controversial aspects of his politics. Presented as a movement toward the reconstruction of civil society and democratic participation, #yosoy132 has expanded to include wide sectors of the population, nationally and transnationally. The yosoy132 or IAm132 hashtag is used online and offline as a marker of support and belonging

Aesthetics · Art · Contextualization · Media studies · Performative utterance · Performing arts · Political science · Politics · Social media · Social movement · Sociology · Visual arts · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Law · Social Media and Politics

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