Pixelated resistance: Building counter-archives of the 1965–1966 mass killings through visual activism in post-Suharto Indonesia

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dc.abstract.enThis 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.
dc.affiliationInstytut Nauk Społecznych
dc.contributor.authorGłąb, Katarzyna
dc.date.access2026-10-16
dc.date.accessioned2026-10-16T12:10:17Z
dc.date.available2026-10-16T12:10:17Z
dc.date.created2026-03-31
dc.date.issued2026-10-14
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.grantnumber2019/33/N/HS2/02270
dc.description.granttitleKrajobraz ludzkiej i nie-ludzkiej pamięci w post-autorytarnej Indonezji
dc.description.issue2
dc.description.physical1-20
dc.description.sdgPeaceJusticeAndStrongInstitutions
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.description.volume42
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/var.70032
dc.identifier.eissn1548-7458
dc.identifier.issn1058-7187
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/2628
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/var.70032
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationnauki socjologiczne
dc.rightsClosedAccess
dc.rights.explanationzamknięty dostęp
dc.rights.questionNo_rights
dc.share.articleOTHER
dc.subject.en1965–1966 mass violence
dc.subject.enAlit Ambara
dc.subject.encounter-archives
dc.subject.encounter-memory
dc.subject.endigital visual activism
dc.subject.enicono-ethics
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titlePixelated resistance: Building counter-archives of the 1965–1966 mass killings through visual activism in post-Suharto Indonesia
dc.title.journalVisual Anthropology Review
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle