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Abstract

This doctoral dissertation assesses how the protest movement “Tolak Reklamasi Teluk Benoa” in Bali (Indonesia) protests with and through images. In particular, it analyzes the diverse creative ways of mobilizing through art, that not only happen within and around the protest movement, but that substantially shape it. By engaging with how different movement ontologies shape the activist artists’ work, this dissertation pulls together image-makers from Tolak Reklamasi networks. The ethnographic work on which this body of work is based focuses mainly on local painters, illustrators, members of a Balinese punk collective, and street artists. Besides engaging with the individual artists’ bodies of work and motivations for protesting, this dissertation also points out their links to the core organizing body of the movement, and by extension – to each other. Therefore, this research is located at the intersection of visual anthropology, and social movement studies; as it highlights how images can help mobilize supporters, impact the movement’s organization and connectivity. But also, this thesis shows how images are activist expressions which negotiate the political economy of the tourism industry on Bali in their own right.

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