Tommaso Durante, The University of Melbourne, Australia
This short essay presents a cutting-edge interpretation of the evolving gestalt of the global
social whole by addressing the intersection between visual globalization, political theory and
national populist ideologies. It focuses on the right-wing populist production, circulation, and
consumption of “new” global visual imagery.
Drawing on the W.J.T. Mitchell’s concept of “the surplus-value of images” (2005), it
challenges traditional socio-political epistemologies and the symbolic domination of national-
populist image circulation in the social web and, more broadly, in the Internet. Specifically,
I use computational data analysis methods to examine visual big data by means of similarity
of image circulation and analyse and interpret these new figures of knowledge of the global
by combining the quantitative and qualitative methods of “digital visual ethnography” and
“global iconology” through the lenses of sociopolitical theory (Durante 2009— [2007—];
Pink 2013). This is highly relevant, since the social web and social network echo-cambers—a
metaphorical description of a situation in which ideas and beliefs are amplified or reinforced
by communication and repetition inside a closed system—have been crucial for the global
spread of national-populist ideologies and system of values, both conservative and progres-
sive (Figure 1.). In doing so, I argue that the emerging visual-ideological apparatuses of
images reflecting and interpreting national-populist ideologies spread at global level are an
‘old wine in new bottles.
Global_Consciousness_and_New_Visual_Orde
