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Digitally mediated iconoclasm: the Islamic State and the war on cultural heritage
journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-01, 00:00 authored by J A González Zarandona, C Albarrán-Torres, Benjamin IsakhanBenjamin IsakhanThis paper puts forward the new analytical framework of ‘Digitally Mediated Iconoclasm’ (DMI) to analyse and interpret iconoclastic acts that are experienced through the propaganda (videos, social media, photographs, and other media) that the actor perpetrating the destruction makes available in global information networks for its consumption, duplication, and distribution. DMI captures three stages of the destruction (before, during and after the event) as both evidence of that destruction and as a perdurable digital archive. To demonstrate the relevance of DMI, we focus on an analysis of the videos and photographs depicting heritage destruction at pre-monotheistic sites targeted by the Islamic State (IS), such as Palmyra in Syria, the Mosul Cultural Museum, Nineveh and Nimrud in Iraq. The analysis focuses on the three stages that DMI comprises, showing the different photographic and audio-visual production techniques that the IS uses to enhance the tension that is built up leading to the destruction of cultural heritage while allocating material and human resources to produce digital propaganda. This analysis demonstrates how the analytical framework of DMI can be used to advance important work in heritage and media studies.
History
Journal
International Journal of Heritage StudiesVolume
24Issue
6Pagination
649 - 671Publisher
RoutledgeLocation
Abingdon, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
1352-7258eISSN
1470-3610Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2017, The AuthorUsage metrics
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