Between Hashtagging and Hashtrending: Counterculture, Dissent and Aesthetic Politics

Chantelle Gray Van Heerden

Chantelle Gray Van Heerden

Abstract

The year 2016 was marked by a number of major events, some fleeting, others still ongoing, but almost all underscoring the need for thinking about a very different way of being in the world; in other words, producing radically different kinds of subjectivity. These events – which included Brexit and the election of real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity, Donald Trump, as the president of the U.S. – can be seen as part of the ongoing rise of right-wing populism that has marked world politics for at least the past decade. The continuing European migrant and refugee crises, too, have been harnessed by politicians to create voter fear around personal security in terms of jobs and safety, and national security in terms of terrorism. Accordingly, these kinds of political strategies create a victim-perpetrator binary.

Author Biography

Chantelle Gray Van Heerden

Chantelle Gray van Heerden (PhD) is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Gender Studies at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her research centres on the philosophical collaboration between Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and she is one of the organisers of the biennial South African Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conference. Chantelle is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume, Deleuze and Anarchism (Edinburgh University Press), and is a member of the editorial collective of Gender Questions. In her spare time, she makes experimental music and is one of the organisers of the annual Edge of Wrong festival. She is particularly interested in the gendered complexities of the music industry and is currently working on a series of music philosophy articles suited to the contemporary experimental scene.