The aesthetics of stealth Towards an activist philosophy of becoming-imperceptible in contemporary media

This article argues that various contemporary media articulate an aesthetic of stealth, that is, the staging of acts of becoming- imperceptible. Furthermore, the article contends that the aesthetic of stealth resonates with a broader shift in the functioning of contemporary political culture, the requirements it formulates, and appropriate modes of action. The argument is presented in three case studies, each articulating one step in the argument: through Steyerl’s video piece How Not to Be Seen, the author situates stealth aesthetics in the political context of a shift away from struggles for visibility to a withdrawal from representation and the preoccupation with becoming-imperceptible. In an engagement with the TV series The Americans, the author explains how exactly contemporary media, in this case television, produce an aesthetic of stealth, foregrounding the notion of ecological perception. Finally, an analysis of the changes in gameplay in the video game series Tomb Raider allows the author to elaborate, rst, on how stealth gameplay fosters the embodied performance of ecological perception and, second, on how the media aesthetic of stealth in ltrates genres that traditionally rely on open confrontation and combat.