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Activity Funded

Digitally Platformed Artistic Visualities – Users’ negotiations of digital platforms’ algorithmic (in)visibility and censorship in the art/smut divide

Visualidades artísticas digitalmente platformizadas – Negociações de utilizadores sobre (in)visibilidade algorítmica e censura em plataformas digitais na divisão Arte/obscenidade

Reference
2024.13064.PEX
Project Start Date
2026-02-01
Project End Date
2027-07-31
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Social sciences
Funding Program
Concurso para Projetos de Investigação de caráter Exploratório em Todos os Domínios Científicos 2024

Abstract

This research focuses on contemporary changes in photography production via: 1) technical dimensions (from the omnipresence of digital cameras, to image-centric social media with opaque algorithms, and automated computer-generated realistic images); 2) political dimensions (changes in platform moderation, in legislation, and in sociocultural ethos); 3) economic dimensions (the gig economy and platformed labor, the ‘entrepreneur’ mindset, the use of social media as source of income); and 4) social dimensions (the management of interpersonal and digital risk that comes with social media exposure, the emphasis on performative authenticity, the gendered/classed/racialized/generational/ageist dynamics of social media visibility). It focuses on Portuguese Instagram content producers that create photographic work which can be seen as defiant of the distinction between art and ‘smut’ (e.g., nude photography, erotic photography, bodyscapes, boudoir photography, etc) to more properly understand the ideological, technological, theoretical and lived experiences of an ever-shifting definition of ‘Art’, who can and how can they lay claim to the role of ‘artist’, and how the cultural capital that comes with that status is harnessed in face of the constant possibility of deletion and banning. It further focuses on the complex nature of anticipating, and engaging with, the possibility and fact of content and/or profile deletion or moderation, be it algorithmic or human-initiated. This is a multi-methods, interdisciplinary, project, which resorts to a confluence of more classically established methods, such as thematic analysis or text-based content analysis, and social semiotic analysis, with more recent digital methods approaches, namely network graph analysis, automated textual analysis and visual classification and recognition algorithms. The data itself will also be obtained via a mix of online surveys and face to face interviews, with online digital diaries, image repositories and accompanied media walkthroughs. It is relevant for its ability to critically assess recent systemic changes in platform policy (associated with shifts in mainstream politics and cultural norms), in the role that emerging technologies play, and in how people negotiate their autonomy, (self-)expression, and perception of the work they produce, in face of those changes. Its originality lies in the emphasis on Portuguese content producers, on focusing on all dimensions of the content production cycle and all persons involved in it, and on not relying on creators’ self-definitions about what content they produce or ‘who’ they are in relation to that content production. It aims to capture a multitude of experiences which are connected not via an aesthetics or a teleology of content production, but by the centrality of the risk of being expelled or silenced in those platforms. This project puts into practice the notion of participatory research and community-centered accountability and impact, integrating community members from an early stage, and contributing to the visibility of Portuguese photography and modelling, via photography exhibits and the publishing of a book which includes photographs from the exhibit alongside texts from both community members and academics.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • COFAC, Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural, CRL (COFAC)

Other Institutions

  • Universidade do Minho Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade (CECS)
  • Centro Interdisciplinar de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Évora (CICS.NOVA.UÉvora)

Funding 59.131,07 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

59.131,07 €