Digital Artivisms: Creative Practices, Digital Technologies, and Political Participation Among Young Portuguese Artivists

Abstract

This article discusses young people’s uses of the Internet and digital platforms as a central resource for their civic intervention in the production and dissemination of specific content linked to artistic practices. We set out to find what repercussions digital technologies have in this specific field of “artivism.” We argue that digital media not only presents itself as a public space for intervention and debate but also offers a field for creative experimentation and for the production and circulation of aesthetic content. To this end, we analyze recent empirical data collected as part of a research project on young activists in Portugal, aiming at the articulation between creative practices, activism, and civic intervention. Following a qualitative research frame, about 50 young people mobilized around different causes were interviewed. In our analysis, we highlight 3 main functions that stand out in the interviews: (a) communicational functions, (b) creative and artistic functions, and (c) identity and emotional functions.