Midiativismo e estética como resistência: uma análise sobre o design ativista.

Abstract

The recent history of demonstrations and protests held in Brazil shows that, between the events that took place in June 2013 and the demonstrations carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) reshaped media activism. In the present time history, the way citizens organize themselves and articulate events to promote changes in favor of the common good occur under different contexts, driven by a new logic of participation, use, and appropriation of information and discourses, mobilizing thousands of people to protest and express their ideas in the streets and on social media. Based on technological devices and digital platforms, mainly via smartphones, activists, militants, and other citizens record and share footage of the events they take part in through live streams and publications on networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and on apps like WhatsApp. In this scenario of constant technological and sociopolitical change, design activism presents itself as an important element for the practice of resistance and the construction of counter-hegemonic narratives. Design Ativista was created in the face of major changes in Brazil, between the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the 2018 Elections. Set as an independent initiative, it uses Instagram as one of its main channels of contact and dissemination, as well as a place for keeping track of the national conjuncture through the creations of its collaborators. Considering the internet as a space in which there are ephemeral and visual and memory narratives realized by rhizomatic structures, we face visual language and images as potential vectors for the aesthetic experience. In this sense, the present research aims to understand the uses of technological resources for aesthetics as resistance. We observed the themes used by the @designativista profile through the images and messages published on the Instagram feed, seeking to understand the languages and visual elements explored by the initiative. The analysis highlights three moments: the 2018 electoral period, the pandemic caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the beginning of vaccination (2020- 2021), and the resumption of street demonstrations organized by the government opposition in 2021. The central hypothesis is based on the concept of the plausibility structure, defined by Peter Berger (1985), since the moments of crisis analyzed in the study altered everyday life and common reality, and undermined the legitimacy of constructed worlds. Thus, from an interdisciplinary framework, it is possible to acknowledge the potential that media activism has for individuals, allowing them to appropriate the contents produced and made available on the network, as well as producing them themselves, as yet another way of expressing what they believe in.