Martyn Coutts

Martyn Coutts is a PhD candidate in Media and Communications at the School of Culture and Communication, Faculty of Arts. His research focuses on transnational creative resistance in social movements, particularly examining digital protest art in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Myanmar (2019-2021). His work explores how image-based protest gestures navigate local and globalized cultural flows, analyzing efficacy, platform affordances, and movement cohesion through content analysis and artist interviews.

Research interests include the intersection of media art, social movements, and creative industries, with a focus on how digital media shape protest narratives and solidarity across borders. His interdisciplinary approach bridges media studies, performance studies, and political activism.

Martyn has received the Dean's Award for Excellence for his Master's in Creative Industries from RMIT (2021). His current thesis, Visual Solidarities: Transnational Creative Resistance in Social Movements, is supervised by Fran Martin, Annisa Beta, and Robert Hassan.