Demanding Images: Democracy, Mediation, and the Image-Event in Indonesia

by Karen Strassler

Overview

The end of authoritarian rule in 1998 ushered in an exhilarating but unsettled period of democratization in Indonesia. A more open political climate converged with a rapidly changing media landscape, yielding a vibrant and volatile public sphere within which Indonesians grappled with the possibilities and limits of democracy amid entrenched corruption, state violence, and rising forms of intolerance. In Demanding Images Karen Strassler theorizes image-events as political processes in which publicly circulating images become the material ground of struggles over the nation's past, present, and future. Considering photographs, posters, contemporary art, graffiti, selfies, memes, and other visual media, she argues that people increasingly engage with politics through acts of making, circulating, manipulating, and scrutinizing images. Demanding Images is both a closely observed account of Indonesia's turbulent democratic transition and a globally salient analysis of the work of images in the era of digital media and neoliberal democracy. Strassler reveals politics today to be an unruly enterprise profoundly shaped by the affective and evidentiary force of images.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478005544
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	03/20/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	38 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Karen Strassler is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and author of Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Preface  VII
Acknowledgments  XI
Introduction. The Eventfulness of Images  3
1. Face Value  33
2. The Gender of Transparency  67
3. The Scandal of Exposure  95
4. Naked Effects  133
5. Street Signs  169
Conclusion. The Eye of the Crowd  221
Notes  247
Bibliography  299
Index  319

What People are Saying About This

Christopher Pinney

“An inspiring account of the demands made upon images (to testify and endure) and the complex demands images make in turn upon those who use them. Establishing the conflictual politics of the visual, Karen Strassler dissects the ambivalence and volatility of image-events in prose that is both analytically precise and poetically rich. This is a learned contribution to the study of contemporary Indonesia and an ominous handbook illuminating the convulsive nature of new media landscapes that are changing lives everywhere.”

Webb Keane

“Karen Strassler convincingly links ideologies of transparency that are associated with new media forms with political and social concepts. Especially valuable is her attentiveness to both the ideological valence of new media and the pragmatic implications of what it can and cannot do in practice. Smart, stylish, and sophisticated, Demanding Images is absolutely superb.”

Editorial Reviews

An inspiring account of the demands made upon images (to testify and endure) and the complex demands images make in turn upon those who use them. Establishing the conflictual politics of the visual, Karen Strassler dissects the ambivalence and volatility of image-events in prose that is both analytically precise and poetically rich. This is a learned contribution to the study of contemporary Indonesia and an ominous handbook illuminating the convulsive nature of new media landscapes that are changing lives everywhere.

Christopher Pinney

"Demanding Images is a fascinating, entertaining, and insightful read. A one-of-a-kind book on Indonesia, it will appeal to those interested in Indonesian media, politics, and society, as well as those who want to understand how images affect politics in our more complex media environment."

Pacific Affairs - Colm Fox

"As an interdisciplinary work that draws from a number of sophisticated analytical frameworks, this accessible study holds value far beyond the immediate topic of Indonesian visual culture and public discourse in recent decades."

Choice - S. G. Jug

"An engaging and thought-provoking book, which certainly demands attention from anyone with an interest in Media, Cultural, and Area Studies."

Anthropos - Edward Jurriens

"Demanding Images encourages readers to adopt a valuable new perspective on post-authoritarian Indonesian politics."

PoLAR - Megan Brankley Abbas

"Strassler’s book is a perceptive study of the visual in a time of neoliberal democracy."

Southeast Asian Studies - JPaul S. Manzanilla

"Karen Strassler is highly regarded in Indonesian studies, and . . . her ideas and theories have incredible depth and should be relevant to a larger audience critically engaged with photography and visual culture, those actively trying to grapple with the complexity of images within our social and political experience."

Afterimage - Brian Arnold

"Whether one is interested in contemporary Indonesian politics, in understanding the role of images in public spheres more generally, or in the production and life of images themselves, this book will certainly be a valuable read."

Anthropology Book Forum - Jonathan Kraemer

"Strassler's notion of the 'image-event' elegently draws attention to the permeability between static and mobile, enduring and fleeting, picture and performance, making her work relevant well beyond the limits of Indonesian studies and her disciplinary home in visual anthropology."

Journal of Anthropological Research - Krishna Sen

Karen Strassler convincingly links ideologies of transparency that are associated with new media forms with political and social concepts. Especially valuable is her attentiveness to both the ideological valence of new media and the pragmatic implications of what it can and cannot do in practice. Smart, stylish, and sophisticated, Demanding Images is absolutely superb.

Webb Keane