Page 72 - Key Words in Religion Media and Culture

Circulation 55

In this perspective, it is circulation of liquid imagination as a multi-
currented, scattered, and flowing the social practice that flourishes in
conditions of the continuous multiplicity of translations, as in the case of the
two AG images.
To sum up, analyzing the dynamics of circulation in contemporary society
is of great importance because circulation heavily emphasizes the complexity
and multiplicity of the problem of distribution and dissemination in the
network society we are living in, whether it is dissemination of material objects
such as photographic images of AG or religious ideas attached to them. The
process of circulation can be described as an endless chain of associations and
relationships developed in those encounters. As a consequence, the problem
of framing becomes unavoidable—what kind of potential associations are
relevant and from which perspective? Where to draw the line in the analysis
of different relationships? In my view, circulation of associations stimulates
and nurtures the interpretation of relationships with spectators and with the
tortured others. These interpretations are characterized by heterogeneous
and fragmented cultural imaginaries potentially activated in the act of
looking but remain difficult to trace empirically. Yet it appears that it is
through engaging a never-ending chain of circulating imaginal associations
that we establish a common world. As a cultural work of network society,
circulation seems to play an unexpectedly significant role in that enterprise.

Notes
1 Distribution and dissemination are used here often synonymously. The difference
between the concepts is that distribution refers more often to circulation of goods
and items such as news images, whereas dissemination refers to circulation of
ideas, and beliefs (see e.g. Peters 1999).
2 The case of Abu Ghraib where Iraqi prisoners were abused and tortured by
American soldiers first came to public attention in spring 2004 after the
publication in U.S. media of some disturbing images. These images had been
shot by American soldiers using new media technology, digital cameras, and
videos. Because they are widely available on the Internet, they have not been
reproduced here.
3 Latour on imagination and digital traces; see e.g. Latour 2007.
4 Ku Klux Klan is the name of several American organizations advocating
white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, racism, homophobia, anti-
communism, and nativism. These groups have a history of murdering, terrorizing,
intimidating, and oppressing other social and ethnic groups (see e.g. Kellner:
46).