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ACTIVATING AFFECT AURA THROUGH ART

ACTIVATING AFFECT AURA THROUGH ART Abstract In this paper, we examine clothing and material fibers as affective elements that function as witnesses to a structure of power. Specifically, we consider them as material bystanders of the human’s encounter with state-level violence in two contexts: the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and the militarization of the US/Mexico border region of the Sonoran Desert. Drawing from Sara Ahmed’s notion of affective economies, we first consider how each context mobilized affect to create a culture of hate toward the Other in which abuses became normalized and accepted. Then, we turn to the aftermath of state violence and how clothing perceived as witness is offered as a means of interrupting the violent legacy of these two contexts. By its past experience of mediating interactions within these violent spaces, we draw from Benjamin, Deleuze, and Ahmed to argue that clothing from contexts of political violence takes on elements of that atmosphere of mistreatment, retaining a history imprinted upon it by the subjects it clothed, an imprint we refer to as “affect aura.” We then examine how two artists have used this clothing in their art, drawing upon its affect aura to bring forth a testimonial potential that they mobilize to rehumanize and combat the violent past. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities Taylor & Francis

ACTIVATING AFFECT AURA THROUGH ART

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ACTIVATING AFFECT AURA THROUGH ART

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we examine clothing and material fibers as affective elements that function as witnesses to a structure of power. Specifically, we consider them as material bystanders of the human’s encounter with state-level violence in two contexts: the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and the militarization of the US/Mexico border region of the Sonoran Desert. Drawing from Sara Ahmed’s notion of affective economies, we first consider how each context mobilized...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
ISSN
1469-2899
eISSN
0969-725X
DOI
10.1080/0969725X.2022.2046363
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we examine clothing and material fibers as affective elements that function as witnesses to a structure of power. Specifically, we consider them as material bystanders of the human’s encounter with state-level violence in two contexts: the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and the militarization of the US/Mexico border region of the Sonoran Desert. Drawing from Sara Ahmed’s notion of affective economies, we first consider how each context mobilized affect to create a culture of hate toward the Other in which abuses became normalized and accepted. Then, we turn to the aftermath of state violence and how clothing perceived as witness is offered as a means of interrupting the violent legacy of these two contexts. By its past experience of mediating interactions within these violent spaces, we draw from Benjamin, Deleuze, and Ahmed to argue that clothing from contexts of political violence takes on elements of that atmosphere of mistreatment, retaining a history imprinted upon it by the subjects it clothed, an imprint we refer to as “affect aura.” We then examine how two artists have used this clothing in their art, drawing upon its affect aura to bring forth a testimonial potential that they mobilize to rehumanize and combat the violent past.

Journal

Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities – Taylor & Francis

Published: Mar 4, 2022

Keywords: clothing as witness; affect aura; materiality and memory; non-human archive; state violence; Pinochet dictatorship; US/Mexico border; Sonoran Desert region

References

  • Affective Economies
  • FAQ
  • By the Time I Get to Arizona: Citizenship, Materiality and Contested Identities Along the US–Mexico Border
  • Bare Life: Border-Crossing Deaths and Spaces of Moral Alibi
  • Dos proyectos: Huellas y Dialogos, de Kaarina Kaikkonen
  • Purity and Danger on the U.S.–Mexico Border, 1991–1994
  • The Disappeared as a Transnational Figure or How to Deal with the Vain Yesterday
  • ‘Trash-Talk’ and the Production of Quotidian Geopolitical Boundaries in the USA–Mexico Borderlands
  • Metaphoric Language in a Dictator’s Discourse: Rhetorical Analysis of Three Speeches by Augusto Pinochet