immateriality and anonymity of algorithmic governmentality. Much has been said about the value of creative expression at protests, especially the turn toward imagery and symbols— both critical and joyous—in vernacular art-making, toward visual signs that combine image and text, and toward the performative agitprop theater, cosplay, parades, and costumes. 6 The role of expression, especially handmade, functions as a counterpoint to the flood of documentary images of the protests that circulate online. The individually crafted aesthetic thing is ostensibly the voice of the protester, who has become amaker of expressive objects. Thesematerial expressions of dissent collectively reveal an aesthetic culture. Oftentimes participants combine craft making with images derived frommass media and popular culture. In some instances, workshops were offered by artists to non-artists— the knitted and crocheted “pussy hats” created for the 2017 Women’s March, for example. Las Tesis, theChilean feminist artist collective, created “ARapist inYour Path,” a choreographedperformancewith a scripted chant performedby thousands of (mostly)women that took place in SantiagoonNovember 25, 2019. 7 Apowerful demand aimedat authoritativepower to eliminate thepersistent rape culture and the repressionofwomen and the government’s lack of action, the flash-mobmass protest performance circulated
7. See https://www.wbur.org/ hereandnow/2019/12/11/chilean-feminist-anthem- goes-global. Las Tesis was included in TIME’s 100Most Influential People of 2020. They were nominated by Pussy Riot.
6. See, for example, Carli Velocci, “Why Protestors Love Costumes,” March 2, 2018; https://www.racked. com/2018/3/2/17042504/protest-costumes.
23 Betti -Sue Hertz
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