Author Description

From the visual politics of the FRELIMO-liberation script in Mozambique via the brooms and spoons of Le Balai Citoyen in Burkina Faso, to the updating of images from past revolutions on Twitter and Facebook, often in the diaspora - images play a key role in the envisioning of futures and social utopia. And more than that: Revolutions, understood as moments of radical social and cultural change, are driven by images, as empirical investigations on- and offline show. But what actually constitutes the 'seismographic power' of images, and the sustainability of icons from past ruptures in terms of radicalism, such as the portraits of Burkina Faso's and Mozambiques first presidents‚ Thomas Sankara and Samora Machel? What possibilities do images offer - and what is cut and edited in the process of creating a 'new' image? How do the visual tactics of analogue and digital protesters alike constitute, alter and create visual and multi-media archives? This book brings together a wide range of papers by international researchers and artists focusing on the relationship of images and revolution mostly in the African context. Images in various artistic media such as photography, art in public space, performance, fashion are discussed, but also the relation of visual culture and politics in Mozambique, Angola and Burkina Faso among others.--Page 4 of cover.