Published February 6, 2026 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Twisting the Body: Aesthetic Experience as a New Logic for Student Political Movements

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Universitas Fajar
  • 2. Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar

Description

This article proposes a "new dramaturgy" for student activism by positioning the university campus as a site of aesthetic experience. Drawing on Jacques Rancière’s theory of the distribution of the sensible and Friedrich Schiller’s play drive, the study critiques the contemporary university landscape, which often reduces students to passive consumers and "empty vessels" through a systemic process of stultification. This hierarchical distribution restricts what students can perceive, voice, and enact within the institutional framework. The research explores the concept of the "between-space," a unique juncture where traditional organizational structures are suspended, allowing for a reconfiguration of sensory and political agency. By analyzing the logic of the emancipated spectator, the author argues that true emancipation begins with the assumption of equality rather than its pursuit. Central to this shift is the "twisting of the body," a metaphorical and physical redirection of the subject's gaze, inspired by Roberto Rossellini’s film Europe '51, that enables students to identify and articulate the "invisible" realities of power. The article concludes that by moving within the "between-space" and adopting an aesthetic logic, student movements can transcend "police" power struggles and manifest a genuine political presence that is no longer bound by the coordinates of the institutional regime.

 

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Additional details

Dates

Updated
2026-02-06

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