Revealing Power

Bibliographic Data

ID6141520
AuthorsPedro Ruiz (0000-0002-5553-6537, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume9
Issue3
Pages263-279
Publication date2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Politics an International Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1743-2197 • E-ISSN: 1751-7435
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/17432197-2346973
OpenAlexW2093445633
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited23

This article examines the practical and theoretical implications raised by protesters' use of masks to conceal themselves from the eyes of the state. It argues that the refusal to be seen and categorized by the state is empowering in that it exposes, and then unsettles, the power dynamics that have traditionally structured public space. It analyzes the different ways in which masks create transformative in-between spaces that signify the presence of a deliberately unspecified absence and therefore facilitate the possibility of thinking differently. It concludes that this strategic form of presence reveals the usually invisible boundaries of the public sphere and, in doing so, renegotiates the dynamics of power that have structured articulations of dissent. These issues are explored through an analysis of the masks worn by the Zapatistas, the Black Bloc, carnivalesque protesters, antiwar protesters, and the Occupy movement

Aesthetics · Art · Carnivalesque · Dissent · Dynamics (music · Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public space · Public sphere · Sociology · State (computer science · Transformative learning · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Computer Science · Critical Theory and Political Philosophy · Engineering · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub