Tactical Media: Transpacific social justice in the digital age

Throughout this blog, I have covered the intersection of art and social justice movements across the Asia-Pacific region and what they mean for the current moment. As the sociopolitical landscape shifts into new realms of possibility, so too will mediums of communication and artistic expression. Artists, like the work they create, adapt with changing landscape and find ways to create even in climates of oppression.

Vietnamese artist and human rights activist activist, Pham Doan Trang, is one artist finding old and new ways to circumvent state censorship, something she unfortunately has paid a price for. Trang is the co-founder of the independent Liberal Publishing House, which publishes an illegal book known as Samizdat. The book, which actually bears closer resemblance to a magazine, details instances of human rights abuse within Vietnam, including police brutality and the use of torture.

Dissent in Vietnam is dangerous, and state is omnipotent. The work of Trang and Liberal Publishing House is illegal, and those caught are accused of spreading "anti-state propaganda" and subject to imprisonment and torture. Trang herself was arrested on Oct. 6 of this year, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted [1]. Like many artists across Asia and around the world, Trang has become yet another victim of state violence, and her fate will now be determined by it.

However, this blog is not about one current moment in time bound by geography. If anything, writing this blog had made me think more radically about the fluidity of social justice movements through the lense of art. Like the blossoming of the digital and the forging of new identities, this moment (just like moments before it) calls for drastic self-reconceptualization. That is what pushes us to express and depict the world around us, whether through the written form or the digital landscape. It's what urges us to turn the camera on injustices and state violence even if that puts us in their crosshairs. The desire innate in humanity to create, not only for expression, but for wonder of what a better tomorrow may look like is inherent to art. It is inherent to this moment. Art will adapt like the social movements it depicts. Art will evolve just like Asia and Asian identity. Art will thrive in the minds of a global diaspora, and will live on and serve the needs of the people. Art is tactical, and like any tactical gear, it will come most handy when it's needed for survival. And survive we will.

Source:

1. "The Jailed Activist Left a Letter Behind. The Message: Keep Fighting," Richard C. Paddock, The New York Times, Oct. 14, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/world/asia/vietnam-pham-doan-trang-arrest.html?searchResultPosition=4.