Performing Critical Voice

On the Relationship of Citizenship, Belonging, and the Articulation of Contemporary Critiques

In August 2018, the Dresden Hygiene-Museum [1] opened a special exhibition on the topic of racism to engage with the structures and effects of systemic oppression. [2] In doing so, the museum sought to provide a new perspective to the ongoing political debates on difference, inclusion and xenophobic discrimination that have marked the city of Dresden’s recent history in light of recurrent protests by right-wing conservative groups. The exhibition’s opening day […]

Alterity — A Category of Practice and Analysis

Preliminary Remarks

“Media exist because there is alterity” — so reads the first sentence of an introduction to media theories. [1] We need media to ensure that the position of alterity (the different, the Other) can be articulated, because “[a]lterity means an ‘other’ that initially denies access, that requires a third party to guarantee its conveyance, symbolization, preservation, transfer or communication.” [2] At first, a position of alterity seems to resist being made accessible. […]

Political Alterity in Pathé’s French and British Newsreel Coverage of the May 1968 Events in Paris

This article compares how French and British newsreels reported the May 1968 events in Paris. The May 1968 events, which began as a series of protests at Paris Nanterre University, soon became one of the year’s defining features, as anti-capitalist demonstrations spread from the university campus to nearby factories and onto the Paris streets. In documenting these events, contemporary newsreels used various strategies of alterity […]