Conservatism vs design history…
Here’s an interesting flier / pack of lies about the famous Sheppard Fairy Obama posters. They claim/lie the Obama poster is a rip off of Soviet and Mao posters…proving once again how a lack of design history can be a dangerous thing!
This group “Americans for Visual Literacy” doesn’t have a web page nor did they sign their names…it’s basically conservative lies in a Presidential debate. Shocking, in this day and age, I know…
Here is the entire article and Sheppard’s well written reply.
So yeah…be educated voters AND graphic designers, please.
by Andrew M. | 10.11.08 | Print, Uncategorized | 15 Comments »
Unfortunately, this election will come down to race.
Here’s a little history lesson. Living in the state of Virginia in an area where the Civil War was literally fought, I have witnessed first hand how little we have advanced in tolerance since the Civil Rights Movement. The other day I was having breakfast at a small diner and overheard the waitress and a customer make a joke about Obama using the N word several times. Now, the town I live in has evolved since I have been here. I see just as many Obama signs as McCain and we have an Obama headquarters which is surprising since this is a strong Republican area. Yet we also have two confederate flag stores and townspeople that hate the university that keeps it alive. After growing up in a diverse area such as metro-Detroit, I cried when I crossed the mason dixon line to move here.
so who are you voting for?
I will never tell.
I don’t think the e-mail is entirely a lie, just a blatant manipulation of the truth. Shepard Fairey’s work has always referenced political propaganda of the past. His use of imagery and decoration and often typeface selection are clear references to constructivism as well as other periods of design (art nouveau, art deco, 60s psychedelia, etc.) and yes many of his posters are illustrated in the manner in which the famous Che image was. So they are right in that Fairey’s work references these things. It does not however plagiarize, if that was the case than most contemporary art would be plagiarism. And yes, they are right that Fairey has promoted graffiti. OBEY was a huge graf campaign.
Does this mean Obama is a communist and supporter of communism and criminal behavior, NO! This is SPIN. It is the same spin doctoring that has my mother-in-law believing Obama is Muslim. It just shows that elections unfortunately are not really about the issues, and about bending the truth to just illustrate someone as “The OTHER.” To make them what we don’t want to have leading the country.
Both sides do it, or have supporters who do it. How many times have we heard in the last week that the economic crisis is because of the 8 years of the Bush administration. No, the current mortgage crisis (meltdown as the media calls it) is the result of decades of political action to deregulate banking (look it up, do the research, some of it goes back as far as Carter, and most recently as Clinton, throw in some Reagan and Bush 1 in there as well).
What pisses me off more than this kind of spin doctoring is that people will take nearly everything they are told as truth, when in reality most of these issues are extremely complex and people should really do the research before they decide who they are voting for.
Ryan has a good point… however, I do think there is a fine line between SPIN and outright lies.
People should vote based on logic and reason, not fear or intimidation.
I do think when they show those images of possible influences to the poster’s design, they’re leaving out an important element: the word “hope.” Either way, the actual influence of these “poster facts” are arguably minimal at best, especially this late in the campaign.
I wish more of us paid attention to history in general, and knew the definition of Socialism, and what it means to live in a Constitutional Federal Republic, and the origins of the financial crisis… but, we’re suffering from a fundamental lack of education in this country. Often, we vote based on how our parents voted, and their political affiliation dictates our vote, despite who may or may not be the best fit for the job. We make rash decisions about people due to our own emotional experiences, without stopping to think.
Wow, there are stores that just sell confederate flags?? Amazing.
Erica Jo. – bringing substance to a discussion.
I must disagree to an extent with Ryan. Sure, Sheppard Fairy has made no secret of pastiching Russian works…or Mao China, or the Black Panthers, or the dollar bill. The Obama poster is not these things. He has received a lot of criticism both good and bad for this. I’m a fan and I got sick of the Russian stuff a long time ago from him!
The Che poster comparing is an oddity. First, they don’t even show the poster, just the original photo (the actual Che poster used a one color version of the image with a white fill on red paper)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/303508309_de067f651e.jpg
So yes, calling this “plagiarism ” is a lie.
The Obama poster has red, white and blue colors.
I myself am sick of this- “liberal? you must be a commie!”
This email, which I still maintain as a pack of lies, does another oldy but goody- anyone doing political commentary against the right usually gets called “Unamerican” Yet these people don’t seem to mind Mr. McCain’s ads, the Sift Vote ads, or even Fox news editorials on major Democrats or Clinton when he was in power. It’s “editorial” when Fox news does it…and “Unamerican” when Fairy does it?
As to the economy…
yes, I would say it’s a lot of things. But..it should be noted that I believe one of the first legilation that Bush supported or pushed through was some reforms on credit cards (interests, extent of punishments, etc.) Back in 2000, I remember reading in newspapers taht economis back in 2000 thought this legislation would widen the middle class and poor. Not surprising, one of is biggest contributors was…MBNA America. Funny how that worked out…
LIke I said, it wasn’t “entirely” a lie. Lots of it is false, and lots of it is just the truth manipulated. The poster doesn’t scream Mao or Putin or any of those things, I was just saying that their claims about Fairy’s art weren’t entirely off base.
You are right in how the media (Fox News and the right-wing media) paints being liberal as unAmerican. I think these kinds things are directed at people who have already made their minds up as to what side they are on. And it just further fuels that sort of division by painting the other person as “the other”/”undesired”.
I have long had a theory that most of our voting public is un-infomed. And that they are not willing to educate themselves properly to become an informed voter. Even those who I believe are extremely educated and care about things, they too are uniformed in many ways, mostly because of how the media drives what information is most readily available.
Ryan, it’s a good study in propaganda, no?
Fox News started the conservative propaganda, and now MSNBC is propaganda as well, for the democratic ticket.
There is definitely a connection with Soviet Russia in imagery, but also in the way the media conducts itself now. There ARE more than two sides to every issue… lots of people are tired of democrat/republican battles…
Nick, I’ve been meaning to make a post about the media (but trying to do it in a design context). Lots of people are growing sick of the 2 sided battle, but at the same time there is a fear of voting for 3rd party platforms whose ideologies may be closer in line to what people really want.
There are 2 things that drive me crazy about the media:
1. People aren’t informed about 3rd party candidates. For all the talk about race in this election, there has not been a single mention of Cynthia McKenny (an African American woman) running for president, or Matt Gonzales as the VP for Nader. The media perpetuates the 2 party system, giving us few choices to vote. In many European countries there are elected officials from multiple parties in office, and in some, elections can yield 6 or more viable candidates from different parties.
2. There is often a fear of voting for a 3rd party candidate. Ever since the first Bush election in 2000, third party candidates have become the blame for loss of elections (Nader in Florida, or maybe it goes further back to Ross Perot even being blamed for Clinton’s win). People feel, especially in “swing states” that voting third party would result in a loss of vote for one of the major parties whose ideology may be closer inline to the third party candidate and would have a better chance of winning. So you are forced with “lesser of the two” type choices: the I don’t want to “throw away my vote” mentality.
Historically 3rd parties played a more prominent role in affecting change in government. Anti-slavery first appeared on 3rd-party platforms before major parties adopted it. In today’s modern media, these kinds of ideas, from election reform to the creation of a Palestinian state, are rarely even heard in the debates.
Perhaps I’ll write that post this week…
Ryan,
Nader visited the WVU campus here, and I got to see him speak, which was nice. I do feel that the two party system no longer represents the American people. We should have the other candidates participate in the debates, and the debates should be real debates.
Recently, I was arguing with a friend of mine about third parties, and she sent me this article:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/08/25/too-many-parties-weaken-political-leaders.html
But, there are many examples of successful multi-party governments, ie. Germany. The future of our country would be more secure if we had other parties with other options for candidates.
That being said, I think there is a faction of the Republican party, call them neo-cons or whatever, that is attempting to subvert the will of the American people and change the constitution to further their, quite frankly, radical ideology. It’s a great power struggle, and I think McCain is being stifled by this group in their bid to maintain this power. I want this group out of our government, and some sense of logic and reason restored. I think Ralph Nader would make an excellent president, but he’s not got a chance without any exposure to the national media in debates and such. This is ridiculous, and it’s awfully hard to even know who the other candidates are without extensive research.
But, I also don’t feel that Obama is the lesser of two evils…I felt that way about Kerry, but I highly encourage anybody here to pick up a copy of one of Obama’s books, and you’ll notice that he actually has depth of rationale to his policies and philosophy. Much of these sane viewpoints aren’t even discussed in debates and in the media, because they are dumbing down our informational intake. The commercials, “debates”, and news reports about any policies always sound pretty fake to me.
Also, the other parties are running for other areas of government besides the presidency could start to make in-roads towards reforming the two-party system
I think your last observation is key. I know the Greens have candidates here in Michigan (and have lots of people in other states holding local and state offices). There are several Libertarians on the ballot here as well.
Again I think it comes down to getting the word out, I have yet to see a green party representative or a libertarian representative on someone’s lawn.
I doubt Perot voters would have reelected Bush 1. His popularity was tanking once the Gulf War buzz wore off and he got hammered about the economy…and seemed quite out of touch.
Now if you want a third party upset…Teddy Roosevelt and the Bull Moose party was credited with dividing the Republican party and causing Taft to loose.
The only mention of Cynthia McKenny was when McCain was “busy” fixing the economy, she offered to step in the first debate for him. That was about it.
Outside of third parties a lot of Democrat candidates were not given much press or let to debate in primaries. I was pulling for Dennis Kusinich. Even the You Tube debate seemed to focus on Edwards, Obama, and Hilary…all of whom were centered on stage while the rest were to the sides. After Youtube, the Networks didnt let Kusinich of Mike Gavel participate in the debates.
And to two parties…remember I went to graduate school in Minnesota, when Jesse Ventura was the Gov. At that time, he was the highest ranking 3rd party leader in the country. I had a friend who worked for the city and was usually a Republican and he said he liked the fact Jesse’s plans, good or bad, did get done.
But Jesse spent most of his time it seemed on talk shows…hosting football games…and other such worth while events. The local media didn’t much like him, but he kind of et himself up as a joke. It could have been a turning point for 3rd party candidates.