Drones and Streets: On the Image Composition of the Tahrir and Gezi Occupations (original) (raw)

In a photograph showing a roaring crowd from above, people cover the urban landscape like so many ants occupying a square. Another image brings us downward and a little closer: we see masses confronting security forces as a water cannon approaches. Another one captures the crowd as it disperses. Some protesters throw gas canisters back toward the police line, arms stretched, legs hanging in the air, in the thick of the gas cloud. An image of a naked man standing still in front of the police line, as if to say, "this is how fragile we are." A photograph of a protester wearing a superhero costume walking down the street seems to be challenging the police by declaring: "We have secret powers." Other images show hundreds of people talking to each other in the middle of a street. Gestures of a long-lasting discussion, hands swing in the air, heads nod, attentive eyes directed to each other. The raised fist, the V for victory sign held high, someone throwing a rock toward an unseen target, a body stretched out like an arch. A line of people holding flags on top of a mountain of ruins, street signs, and bricks. An image shows people eating together or sleeping out in the street in front of makeshift tents. Where are we? Is it Syntagma in Athens, Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Tahrir in Egypt, Taksim in Istanbul? One cannot tell. The iconography and framing of each occupation is patterned consistently, suggesting an iconographic composition of political resistance and human resilience. The final days of 2010 shook the world with an unexpected revolt erupting in Tunisia, quickly followed by another in Egypt in the early days of 2011. 1 In the years that followed , uprisings sprouted up in different corners of the world, one after the other. Even though each of them occurred in its specific historical, social, and political context, this was a global movement against the socioeconomic consequences of neoliberal globalization. There were striking similarities between the uprisings in terms of movement organization and action repertoire: the occupation of public spaces was the main form of action; there were neither leaders, nor visible formal movement organizations such as political parties or unions involved; they were spontaneous and horizontally organized, ad hoc structures and initiatives organizing the everyday in the occupation. 2 Even though this cycle of contention, mostly referred to as the "movement of the squares," was global-from Yemen to Hong Kong, from Brazil to Armenia, from Israel to Turkey, and then the USA, Spain, Bahrain, Greece, Bulgaria, Syria, and Ukraine, to name just a few-it was also specifically Mediterranean. It erupted in Tunisia and resonated in Egypt,