JUSTICE FOR GEORGE FLOYD: THE TIPPING POINT? is a documentary short film that explores the power of visual imagery and narrative, both online and in the real world, within social movements. The documentary was produced in partial fulfillment of my hybrid dissertation for a PhD in Texts and Technology, Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The hybrid dissertation was an expanded version of the same topic which was comprised of a 62,000-word traditional written document, 3 code-based interactive generative scholarship artistic works, and a documentary short film. Why study visuality and narrative? In the academic world, there’s a distinction between what has been labeled hard and soft science. Hard science is based upon easily measured numbers and statistical data. Soft science refers to things that are not easily measured such as art and the humanities. However, it’s a false assumption that because something is easily measured that it also must have the most profound impact. In terms of social media, although a graphic might lead to 10 people clicking a like button, the video of a digital lynching might also light the spark to ignite a global social movement and cultural revolution. So why did I decide to make a documentary as part of my dissertation? In making the argument for why visuality matters, there is no better way to explore and communicate the power of visuality and narrative than to utilize visuality and narrative as a tool of its own exploration. The Justice for George Floyd Protests, as a social movement, marked a pivotal landmark in global culture for a demand for social justice and social change, particularly as it pertains to the systemic injustices routinely inflicted upon people of color and marginalized groups.

Through the lens of the justice for Gorge Floyd protests, my dissertation offers a critique, consultation, creation, and contribution to the visual imagery emerging from the digital activism of social movements. Built upon a foundation of counterpublics, critical race counterstory, counternarratives, the Black public sphere, rhetorical-cultural narrative, rhetorical-cultural memory, visual social semiotics, hashtag activism, and media framing and schemas, I engage in a rhetorical-semiotic-technocultural analysis of the justice for George Floyd protests, as a social movement. I position myself as a visual specialist artist, activist, academic, and advisor for social movements engaged in social justice and social change. I argue that culture, as moderator, traversed the rhetorical-semiotic-technocultural messaging of the visual imagery emerging from the digital imagery of the justice for George Floyd social movement which motivated global citizens to take to the streets to demand social justice and social change. Drawing upon the justice for George Floyd movement, I offer artists, activists, and academics ten activist strategic propositions for the preservation of the cultural narrative, memory, and history of social movements which may utilize visuality to withstand social movement backlash.

An impassioned, skeptical filmmaker and digital media scholar witnesses the Justice for George Floyd movement surge during the middle of a global pandemic and must overcome generational, entrenched cultural biases to uncover why global citizens took the streets to demand Justice for George Floyd and to document concrete social media digital activism rhetorical strategies for social justice and social change by interviewing activists, academics, and artists toiling in the trenches for cultural progress.

This social justice and social change interactivity presentation is an interactive audiovisual rhetorical argument for #BlackLivesMatter that employs digital media elements of both generative and participatory culture art. If only we could walk a single day in another person’s shoes… We are all the sum of each of our own unique experiences and reality is a perception based upon one’s vantage point within one’s immediate cultural narratives and awareness of the context. Just because you may not have personally killed anyone, does not mean killers do not exist. By the same token, stereotypes, hegemonic marginalizing tropes, systemic racism, and systemic injustice exist, whether or not you are an active participant, unwilling beneficiary, or injustice-denier. Systemic racism and injustice are pervasive and permeate throughout society. This social justice and social change interactive experience is designed as an educational learning tool and a visual rhetorical argument for the #BlackLivesMatter social movement.

“Still I Rise: Remix” is a visual, lyrical, digital interactive fight song for civic action for the Black Lives Matter social justice and social change movement. Created during and by the stressors intensified from the global pandemic, this JavaScript interactive poetry remix embraces the digital activism made exponential during the pandemic through the platformization of counternarratives. The remix blends multiple digital mediums with cultural artifacts of the past and present to weave together a rhetorical and semiotic interactive experience that enlightens society and uplifts the human spirit. Through multimodality and intertextuality, “Still I Rise - Remix” exploits the aesthetics of the digital interactive experience through multiple artistic forms of expression, including code, video, audio, and hypertext. This COVID E-Lit interactive exhibition is a multimodal expression and declarative statement for the Black Lives Matter movement which embodies the spirit of change, inclusion, and social justice. “The medium is the message.” Experience “Still I Rise - Remix.”

Through the narrative retelling of the events leading up to and through the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests, I reveal the point-of-views from polar opposite cultural viewpoints and how the cultural context changes the visual social semiotic meaning of the same imagery through the vantage point of an alternative concept. I do not believe that this visual analysis alone will change what people believe about the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests, but it is my goal to use the narrative information visualization for this visual analysis, as a tool to broaden the audience’s understanding of why people believe what they believe about the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests. Perception is reality and everyone’s perceptions are unique; thus, peering into reality is no more distinct or precise than peering through a prism, to see what color is on the other side. Culture and context are the prism, and reality is the rainbow of refracted light on the other side.

This poster paper explores semiotics and rhetoric as narrative in social media visual culture, specifically with issues of identity and social change on social media platforms such as YouTube. Under the umbrella of semiotics, postmodernism, and poststructuralism, the paper builds upon the work of Roland Barthes, Stuart Hall, and Safiya Umoja Noble by expanding the concepts of visual semiotics, visual rhetoric, postcolonialism, critical race theory, and algorithms to examine the narrative of the image.