Tensions between registration and staging: Aylan Kurdi’s image and its constitution in totem

Abstract

Images have long been considered as forms of power, however, in the scenario of mediatization, they acquire more and more capillarity when produced to trigger circulation, not only by journalistic institutions, but mainly by mediatized social actors who use their devices to co-manage the events. In this way, we adopt, as the starting point in this article, the hypothesis that circulation constitutes itself in a valorization process (ROSA, 2016), carried out by both production and recognition instances.  This valorization implies a circularity of the first image, enhancing new interactive circuits. Taking the case of Aylan Kurdi's photographs as an empirical object, we question: how does the image consolidate itself in totem from its inscription in the circulation? Is there a spectral force in the images that result in their permanence? In order to try to answer these questions, we use here the concepts of social and mediatic phagia (ROSA, 2016), self-referentiality (BAITELLO JR, 2005), and the specific contributions of mediatization with Verón, Fausto Neto, Braga and Ferreira, among others.