250 word summary - Art and Activism-Gavin Grindon.

Article summary: Art and Activism-Gavin Grindon. Copenhagen crisis.

In Art and Activism, Gavin Grindon reports on the climate change summit in Copenhagen, and discusses how art is used to show political ideas. The summit lasted two weeks and public opinion went far beyond the political institutes of the summit, it influenced cultural life. A number of visual art projects by different organisations started appearing, stating their opinions. These institutions turned to art as a way of communicating quickly, the WWF created two ice polar bear sculptures that were melting whilst on display. Greenpeace installed a photography exhibition on the effects of climate change. ‘Hopenhagen’ was a project set up right in the centre of Copenhagen and gained great support from major companies with Coca cola offering ‘a bottle of hope’ and hosted an exhibition in which cabins of clear glass were lit with green neon lights. This involvement increased public interest in climate change; however the exhibitions only demonstrated the problems but gave no solutions.

 ‘The art which is most successfully engaged with the issues of climate change was that which has more affinity with extra-institutional activist practices.’Grindon,11,2009. Activism art in the last few years has become popular. The galleries do show pieces that raise issues of activism but without the consequences.  However this type of art can raise issues, bike bloc for example, an art activism project ran the real risk of social activism and galleries pulled out. This was because of new police powers. In the UK, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, started acting on non- violent climate activism with new anti-terrorist police powers. The same happened in the US, labelling the phenomenon as a green scare and invented the term eco-terrorists. Art activism has now been seen as a disturbing social and political issue and a type terrorism, but not in the way in which the Taliban or ISIS are, however it does this mean it is terrorism. Terrorism is defined as – ‘unofficial or unauthorised use of violence and victimisation in the pursuit of political aims’. 

http://dictionary.reference.com/

  Can activism art really be label as terrorism or just an annoyance to political and social wellbeing?                              

250 word summarising - Visualizing the face of domestic terrorism in editorial cartoons- by Janis.L.Edwards.

Visualising the face of domestic terrorism in editorial cartoons: transforming a stereotype.- Janis.L.Edwards.

Cartoonists in the past found it really easy to depict terrorists using stereotypes. The meaning and the idea that the cartoonist is trying to convey was easily recognised. However there are two problems with this, it unfairly stigmatizes individuals or a group, and the stereotype could fail to communicate effectively with the intended purpose.  The perspective of terrorism from the U.S. is largely based on the Middle Eastern and Muslim people. They were usually depicted as ‘bomb-throwing, terrorist villain, with his dark bushy beard and big nose, developed as an easily recognized reference.’Edwards,2,2008. International terrorists where given the stereotype however domestic terrorism is different as it is American citizens, ecoterrorism, mail bombs and anit-abortion assassinations and attempted murders. This presented a challenge for editorial cartoonists. They had to change their visual depictions of terrorists. Less the 1% of terror attacks in the U.S. where performed by international terrorists it was actually domestic terrorism. As cartoonists battled with changing the face of terrorism, they responded to domestic terrorism in three ways. They re-enacted dramatic events, depicting the event rather than the person, the impact of terrorism on community and ‘definitional depictions of the perpetrators.’ Edwards,7,2015. This means that they used masked men, the devil, the KKK, or a beast. So in order to solve the problem they made the terrorist itself, face less. This is a much more equal and fair way to depict the diversity of terrorism and defeats the stereotype. When 9/11 came along there where less stereotypical depictions used and more metaphorical images, this demonstrates well the positive change that came about because of it.          

250 word summarising- Peace for Paris.

Peace for Paris and the role of the image-maker in times of tragedy.- by Rob Alderson, Creative review. 

 In reposes to the terror attacks that happen in France 2015. Jean Jullien created a simple pen and ink sketch of the Eiffel tower and the CND symbol for peace. It went viral. Peace for Paris illustration was shared by thousands of people on social media. The symbol had struck a chord in the people who viewed it; it quickly became a significant message of hope to many people. During the time of the post it had reserved 160,000 likes and more than 3,400 shares in a very short space of time. However people began to question Jullien’s motives behind the image. They commented that he was too quick to respond and that he was doing for self-gain and promotion. ‘Would it be better for designers to pause and think about how they can practically contribute to the aftermath of a major incident?’ Alderson,2,2015. Jullien admitted that he was “embarrassed” by the reaction the drawing had created. But he felt that he had done the right thing to do. ’But if you’re an artist, or an designer or an illustrator what do you do?’ Alderson,2,2015. The image had a very powerfully effect and it helped people to express their opinions and sadness at the tragedy; it wasn't just a way of communicating for Jullien it universally communicated as well. Imagery helps us to understand.’ And that’s where imagery comes in. It bypasses the head and goes straight for the gut. Many people wanted to show solidarity with Paris and express hope in the face of horror- in Jullien’s image they found a very concise way of doing that. Alderson,3,2015.          

250 words summarising and paraphrasing.

In the revisit of First Things First, Rick Poynor in his review of the manifesto (1964-2000) stated that designers should be doing more to communicate social and political issues rather than advertising for money. ‘Distinction drawn by the manifesto was between design as communication (giving people necessary information) and design as persuasion (trying to get them to buy things.)’Poynor,4,2000. The manifesto was ignored by designers for that reason; they wanted money and didn’t give a thought to the more ethical reasons ‘Most preferred to keep their heads down.’ Poynor,4,2000. The designers would rather produce work for the more exciting corporate brands e.g. Nike compared to CND (campaign for nuclear disarmament.)  ‘The vast majority of design projects and certainly the most lavishly funded and widely disseminated- address corporate needs…’ Poynor,4,2000.

Artists and designers coming out of art school were and still are working for more corporate projects because of the money. ‘For many art and design schools, they are obsessed with how cool an advert looks, rather than with what it is really saying…’ Poynor,4,2000. The main message made in the original manifesto and the one in 2000 is that nothing has changed during these 35 years. Katherine McCoy when she states that’ Designers who have grown up in a commercial climate often find this hard to believe. That feels political or social concerns are either extraneous to our work or inappropriate.’ McCoy,5,2000  Even though this article does centre on advertisement, illustrators’ still have these same problems. As illustrators we have the skill of communicating key ideas in a way anyone can understand why don’t we use them to question and challenge political and social issues more? However if commercial work gets you established as a popular designer then you chose to show work demonstrating your opinion of issues, then would the work have more of an impact?   

C.O.P workshop.

(unknown)

 Amnesty international.

(unknown) Latuff 2011. 5 chosen images for the task. 

A3 piece of paper with sketches in repsond  once to each image.

Final responce to the image based on the sketches I made about the image,with one word to describe the image and that is is subject in which the visual journal will follow.

• Key points from workshop:
• C.O.P is hard.
• C.O.P helps you with general knowledge ,skill both writing and drawing , and to form your own opinions.
• Drawing and image making is just as important as writing. 
• Key moments from visual journal should be put on blog.
• visual journal is your own visual response. 
• The visual journal is an ongoing investigation:

My theme- Political and social.

The subject- Destruction. 

Visual responses to 3 found images.

1 -Estate gazette. 











2 -Amnesty international.                        3- Amenity international

This was my initial visual response because I was't sure weather we where meant to do 3 or 1. It is an atomic bomb that looks like maggie thature , distorting building. 

Just in case I did 2 quick responses to image 2 firstly, having the men running at the bribed wire that conceals a gun with the exit sign above. 

And a response to image 3, mushroom bombs and after effect to the weapons shown in the image.