Pixelated resistance: Building counter-archives of the 1965–1966 mass killings through visual activism in post-Suharto Indonesia
Pixelated resistance: Building counter-archives of the 1965–1966 mass killings through visual activism in post-Suharto Indonesia
StatusVoR
Alternative title
Authors
Głąb, Katarzyna
Monograph
Monograph (alternative title)
Date
2026-10-14
Publisher
Journal title
Visual Anthropology Review
Issue
2
Volume
42
Pages
Pages
1-20
ISSN
1058-7187
ISSN of series
Access date
2026-10-16
Abstract PL
Abstract EN
This article examines how digital visual activism constructs alternative narratives of the 1965–1966 mass violence in Indonesia through the poster work of Alit Ambara. Focusing on selected series from the Posteraksi platform, the study analyzes how visual strategies such as irony, symbolic inversion, and affective disruption challenge state-sponsored historiography and cultures of silence. Drawing on theories of counter-memory, counter-archives, and image-events, the article argues that Ambara's posters operate as memory-making interventions that reopen the past to ethical debate. Central to this practice is a form of icono-ethics, which repurposes state icons to restore the dignity of victims and demand accountability. Situated within Indonesia's stalled transitional justice processes, these posters emerge as crucial cultural responses to legal impunity and archival denial. Methodologically, the study combines semiotic analysis with digital ethnography to trace the circulation of images across affective publics: online communities unified by shared emotional engagement and resistance to amnesia. The article demonstrates that where formal justice mechanisms have failed, digital visual practices function as provisional yet powerful counter-archives, sustaining remembrance through circulation, affect, and collective ethical commitment.
Abstract other
Keywords PL
Keywords EN
1965–1966 mass violence
Alit Ambara
counter-archives
counter-memory
digital visual activism
icono-ethics
Alit Ambara
counter-archives
counter-memory
digital visual activism
icono-ethics
Keywords other
Sustainable Development Goals
Exhibition title
Place of exhibition (institution)
Exhibition curator
Type
License type
Funder
Time range from
Time range to
Contact person name
Related publication
Related publication
Grant/project name
Krajobraz ludzkiej i nie-ludzkiej pamięci w post-autorytarnej Indonezji
Grant number
2019/33/N/HS2/02270
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