IMAGE, SOUND, GESTURE: The Aesthetics of Resistance in the Time of Trump
A Multimedia Senior Honors Thesis by Anna Rawls
Defended and submitted to the Department of Anthropology at Appalachian State University in April 2019 for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science.
How have historical moments in the United States been told through the lens of the state and written about in the national narrative of linear, progressive time? In what ways has this narrative been disrupted? As a visual anthropologist and a photographer, I am curious about what kinds of questions have been posed about “social protest” in its relation to aesthetics.
While the internet undeniably plays a vital role in 21st century social movements, this multimedia project is focused on visual cultures of street protest, soundscapes of resistance, and an analysis of embodied forms of dissent. By bringing key voices in the anthropology of image, sound, and gesture into focus, I examine how aesthetics of resistance emerge as objects of cultural analysis in the United States following the 20th century and leading into the post-election era of Donald J. Trump.
IMAGE:
