Visual Memory in the Digital Age:

The Role of Woodcut in Manipulações

Abstract

The article explores the development process of the artwork Manipulações (2016), created by the author, analyzing the interaction between digital and analog images, with an emphasis on visual memory related to the military dictatorship in Brazil and the June 2013 protests. Using the technique of woodcut, the artwork transforms a low-resolution digital image, extracted from Facebook, into a physical object, highlighting the tensions between the ephemerality of the digital and the permanence of the analog. Inspired by the theorist and artist Hito Steyerl, who describes certain contemporary images as "copies in motion" that lose quality as they circulate widely, Manipulações explores this degradation, re-signifying the images through their materialization. The artwork also problematizes the role of social media algorithms in the construction of visual memory, revealing how these platforms filter and prioritize certain narratives while marginalizing others. By evoking practices of visual resistance and connecting them to traditional printmaking techniques, Manipulações questions dominant narratives and suggests new forms of affective and critical engagement with history. The artwork thus seeks not only to preserve but also to transform visual narratives, demonstrating the ongoing relevance of printmaking as a medium of expression in the digital age. Ultimately, Manipulações aims to contribute to a broader and more inclusive cultural imagination, capable of embracing multiple voices and reconfiguring contemporary visual narratives.