Public performances as assemblages: contesting the narrative of Thailand’s 2010 crackdown

Abstract

ABSTRACT Public performances have been studied as acts of social protest that contest social or gender norms or collective memories of state violence. When public protests were prohibited after the 2010 violent crackdown in Thailand, Thai protesters staged other forms of public performances. What unfolded were adaptive street performances by innovative assemblages that forged new ways to resist when interacting with existing limitations and state suppression. This essay engages Deleuze and Guattari’s approach in examining public performances as assemblages. I argue that the multiplicities of public performances challenged the official narrative of the 2010 Crackdown and served as a demand for accountability and justice.