This two-day symposium about decolonisation of our minds traces the origins of colonial narratives in visual advertising from the heyday of colonialism around 1900 to their developments in the 20th and 21st centuries. Evidence of colonial contexts in international image-based advertising media from the 1860s to the 2020s will be analysed in fifteen presentations:
- How are (post)colonial theory and practice transferred into visual narratives in advertising, what patterns and tropes are used?
- When, where and how are visual formulas employed to emphasise power structures, hierarchies and notions of white superiority?
- How can racism, discrimination, objectification, sexualisation and exoticism be decoded, and what are the contexts of origin behind each?
- What about contemporary image productions in formerly colonised countries?
- How can the long and powerful afterlife of stereotypes be explained? What does this tell us about global connections between imperialist colonialism and contemporary capitalism?
- How can artistic and activist intervention contribute to processes of visualisation and evaluation?
