The distributed performance of artefactual representation by mobile video in Brazil

Abstract

During 2013, between June 18 and September 7, the demonstrations in Brazil, (nicknamed June Journeys), comprised successive massive street demonstrations across the country. Their immediate cause is usually taken to be the increased cost of public transportation fares. As the usually harsh repression of street demonstrations by military police spilled over some journalists, the protests of Movimento Passe Livre (Free Pass Movement), originally mobilized through cyber-activist networks gained the massive visibility and sparkled manifestations on a wide range of issues. State’s response to protests was marked by police abuse (Amnesty International, 2014). Notwithstanding this, police repression backfired: at its peak, millions of Brazilians were out in the streets demonstrating dissent on a wide range of issues. The abuses by the security forces spanned from the unnecessary extreme use of force – indiscriminate usage of rubber bullets and tear gas, arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters (Amnesty International, 2014) to press releasing of ungrounded allegations of vandalism.