Speaker
Description
This paper analyses how slow violence (ecocide, urbicide and the use of White Phosphorus), is framed by the media. The NGOisation of humanitarian aid and conflict, structurally results in media strategies that prioritise visible and emotionally shocking violence. This paper argues that slow violence is structurally misrepresented because it lacks the spectacle required by affective media logics. The media narratives determine what suffering is recognised. By using Critical Mapping technologies to visualise spatial information, hidden forms of violence become visible and can be communicated, challenging the map as an object of unbiased evidence and power. In addition, Affective visual politics examine how images produce political responses. I will use theories of affective bodily resonance, particularly the effect of human and non-human bodies meeting to make slow violence more perceptible. These visual techniques will help bridge the apathy gap between viewer and image. I will be using the case studies of the Beirut Urban Labs (2020) Critical Mapping department and the Lebanon Pavilion (2025) at the Biennale Architettura. This paper aims to reframe how slow violence is communicated and visualised. It will show how alternative visual practices can make it politically visible beyond the spectacle that dominates the media.
| Institutional Affiliation | University of Manchester |
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