The yellow vest transformed a legal safety object into political visibility.

Evidence

The high-visibility yellow vests worn by protesters were a particularly distinctive protest technology. Legally required for motorists in cases of road accidents and emergencies, they became a totemic object representing the movement’s transience, urgency, and distress. Vests hence complemented the role played traditionally by masks: the veiling of protesters’ faces to protect them from security forces and safeguard their anonymity. When worn outside the life of protests, the yellow vest also signifies a “special legitimacy” to disrupt normality (for instance through traffic obstruction or roadwork), marking someone who is both building and disrupting. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 335

Categorization

• SEED: The repurposing of a mandatory-legal object (car safety vest) into a protest identity could anchor an essay on how state-mandated infrastructures get seized as political speech.