Visual Culture As a Form of Collective Resistance: Methods, Memory, and Mobilization

In this epoch of turbulent times, where crises continue to intersect, visual culture serves as a critical point of convergence where narratives are continuously contested. This roundtable session explores how visual practices function as active modes of resistance under the conditions of climate change, war, settler colonialism, authoritarianism, and deepening inequities vis-à-vis technology and media power. Digressing from passive image analysis, this session examines how visual practices form resistance across two approaches: (1) grassroots mobilization and (2) long-term memory-making.

We invite contributions that explore the methods, ethics, and practices of visual alter-narratives. This includes on-the-ground documentation via smartphone photography, street art, memes, and other media circulated in the alternative space, as well as the enduring work of counter-archiving and fieldwork data gathering. How do marginalized communities capture (in)visible realities in their journey of reclaiming representation and broadcasting dissent? How do researchers ethically navigate visual data in crisis zones?

The final portion of this English-language session is a collaborative mapping exercise in which participants synthesize insights, methodological challenges, and ethical tensions from their diverse contexts and geopolitical realities to foster generative global dialogue. The goal is to co-design a working conceptual/theoretical framework that maps how visual resistance moves from the active screen into the archives of history. We welcome innovative proposals from scholars and practitioners at all career stages committed to bridging theory, method, and advocacy. Ultimately, this session aims to foster solidarity that transcends time, space, and mediums, that is, foremost, the heart of visual culture.