Estudio interpretativo de imágenes técnicas del Frente de Todos. La campaña electoral argentina de 2019

Abstract

The 2019 elections in Argentina, held at both the provincial and national levels, gave rise to a campaign style centered on the closeness between party leaders and their electors. Indexical images – whether static or in movement, and regardless of the devices used to capture and broadcast them – are relevant units of observation for examining a design grammar that privileges the potential and power of political candidates over the specifics of their government plans. Our study seeks to detect – in visual and audiovisual ads by the Frente de Todos coalition – a style of communication that places politicians and civilians on an equal plane, along with the secular elements and spaces that connote the entirety of these representations. To this end, we amassed two corpora of images: one depicting Alberto Fernandez, the presidential candidate; and another showing Axel Kicillof, who ran for Governor of Buenos Aires Province. We assessed them individually and compared them through a methodological process known as the “principle of differentiation.” We sought to recognize the compositional logic behind the images used for political campaigns in Argentina, which we believe form a system alongside the typical linguistic discourses employed in electoral contexts.