Visualizing Publics

Abstract

The Unity Rally (Marché Republicaine) in Paris on January 11, 2015, organized in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo, was a spectacle staged to produce images of unity after an act of terror itself triggered by the global circulation of injurious visuals. In this paper I analyze the Unity Rally as a case study of the production of a contemporary public not merely by the consumption of but also by the collective production and circulation of media. How do publics witness themselves? While the Unity Rally was ostensibly spontaneous, I explore a series of institutional patterns, social needs and behaviors, technological infrastructures, and iconic templates involving state actors, private individuals, and communication networks to understand the overdetermined manner in which it was photographed.

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