Hacking the Thai Regime of Images: Visual Activism in Post-coup Thailand (2014–20)

This article discusses visual resistance to the 2014 coup d’état in Thailand. Faced with severely curtailed freedoms of association and speech, state censorship and repression, Thai activists were forced to appropriate, domesticate and create a range of symbolic modes of resistance in both the off- and on-line realms. This study was based on Descriptive Case Study Research Methodology and direct observation. I discuss three broad approaches to graphic protest: performance and the use of the body as a semiotic resource; on-line political satire; and street art interventions. I suggest that these served two important roles in the ongoing struggle for democracy: 1) keeping spaces of opposition and dissent open whilst spatial and electoral politics were prohibited; and, 2) challenging the particular visual logic of Thai power on its own terrain – the realm of appearances. The article addresses the period between the 2014 coup d’état until the reemergence of mass popular protests in 2020.