Jörg Scheller | The Sophistication of Propaganda. New Populist Strategies, Social Media and Post-Photography

Wykład Otwarty | Open Lecture

18.12, godz. 18.00 | 18.12 (Wednesday), 6.p.m.
Atrium UAP | venue
budynek B | building B

Populism and propaganda are commonly associated with a coarse visual and verbal language. Words like fist blows. Insults. Accusations. Demeaning caricatures, harsh contrasts, poignant motifs, bold typographies. However, the internet and social media have brought along more sophisticated and subtle forms of agitation, brimming with irony and playfulness, feeding on postmodernist aesthetics, laced with innuendo. This lecture explores the sophistication of online propaganda and populism by the examples of Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook posts from new right/alt-right users and activists. It links the hybridization of propaganda with the ongoing hybridization of (post)photographic images and traces it back to the early fascist avant-garde.


Jörg Scheller jest doktorem nauk humanistycznych, historykiem sztuki, dziennikarzem, muzykiem, anglistą, medioznawcą i kuratorem sztuki. W latach 2007–2009 był stypendystą ośrodka DFG Graduate School Bildbüro Medium w Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. Mieszka w Berlinie, wykłada na Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden, Künste Stuttgart, Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Ludwigsburg, Universität Siegen i Universität Zürich.

Jörg Scheller
is an art historian, journalist and musician based in various express trains. He studied art history, philosophy, media art and anglistics. From 2007 to 2009 he held a grant from the German Research Foundation for the graduate school Image Body Medium at the University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe (HfG) where he was awarded his PhD for a thesis on the myth of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011. From 2009–2012, he worked as a researcher at the Swiss Institute for Art Research in Zurich and as assistant professor at the University of Siegen (2009, 2011–2013). He was appointed permanent lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in 2012. Besides, he had teaching assignments a.o. at the HfG, at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, at the Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Ludwigsburg and at the Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu (ongoing). From 2013–2016, he was co-head of photography at the ZHdK, currently he is head of theory of the BA Art & Media. He gave numerous lectures at universities and museums in Cyprus, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA. In his research he focuses on physical culture with an emphasis on bodybuilding, exhibition history, popular culture and pop music (focus heavy metal). Besides, he occupies himself intensely with all sorts of things. In 2013, he was the curator of the „Salon Suisse” at the 55th Venice Art Biennale, in 2015/16 he curated the exhibition „Building Modern Bodies. The Art of Bodybuilding” at the Kunsthalle Zurich. His essays and reviews appear regularly in, among others, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Schweizer Monat, Camera Austria, frieze magazine. Since 2003, he has been the singer and bass player of the trash (without „h”!) metal duo Malmzeit who run a heavy metal delivery service.

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