Elise's Final Assessment COFA1001

What/How/Why do you see?

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Shelved Responsibilities and Procrastination’s Hold

This is an iteration formed through my attempt (at failure) to write 100 things I’d rather do than my assessment. In shorter form, I wrote 30, as well as 15 thoughts I’d rather have and 7.5 things I’d rather say. The simplicity of the...

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Iteration 4:”Silent Ignorance and Shelved Issues: Not A Climate For Change”

Climate Change is a serious issue and sometimes people just don’t take it seriously.

This is an Iteration evolved from different experimentation with sound and the other iteration using GIFs- being moving imagery and text. I decided that a stationary image and a segment of silence followed by three different sounds playing one after the other, sums up the worlds confusion and silence in regards to climate change, at least symbollically.

"The Fire"- We know the climate is changing, but we can’t be sure why; The early stages of the arguments for Climate Change had everyone frustratingly confused, and slightly freaked out, scientists spouting different theories and governments and their people ignoring the issue, like usual. But a spark was lit and so the flame burned.

"The Blizzard"- Governments begin to realise that this may be a serious problem. The world is divided into those who believe and those who don’t and we all continue to debate in circles; some taking responsibility, others boasting ignorance. The air got colder and the discussion older.

"The Flow"- The world has become less obsessed; we’ve taken Climate Change in our stride. Many are still at either extreme of the pole, but we’re trying and that’s all that matters. The discussion flows on. Google search images:Climate Change Youtube Sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXSQ9fsVWxc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWJ7tIeotWw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cNHg9j-42w Note: Due to Tumblr Restrictions video was cut to 5 minutes and under

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Note it was cut short

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Iterations, Note:

The link between these works is the concepts and processes;

1- Propaganda/Anti-Propaganda and It's Distraction from Bigger Issues

2- The Use of Propaganda/Anti-Propaganda as a message for Modern Values and Truth Hidden behind symbolism

3-The appropriation into modern context of older Propaganda for new mesages and the distraction new technology has caused

4- The mode of presentation of Propaganda/Posters with a message and its distraction from Bigger Issues as well as use of symbolism

5- Chosen Ignorance and Silence (SEP) as a result of Confusion/Propaganda and the Shelving of Responsibilities

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"No Free Rides For Rosie" takes an already made Australian propaganda poster and changes the slogan and mode of presentation in order to convey a different meaning/message; by changing it’s appearance and message, I have changed the way people see this poster, and subtly influenced opinion on the issue of the end of the ‘Age of Entitlement’, poking fun at the new budget the Liberal Party have recently announced.

I originally started by thinking of different modes of presentation and decided to once again try my hand at gif making. I edited various pictures and attempted to create gifs that were humorous in nature but got the meaning across as well. In today's society, so many people spend their days "wasting" their time on things like facebook, youtube and yes even tumblr, laughing at memes and watching funny videos. My gif is a mix of two generations forms of distraction- Propaganda Posters of the past (used to hide manipulations in the empowerment of women-Rosie) and the GIF, a tool used by many to create humorous scenes and entertain. People often used/use these things to distract from the bigger issue, and as such combined they cross many levels of understanding in the ideas of "shelving responsibility" and "putting the big issues off". War should have been led to a halt and our government should realise that it was never about entitlement but rather rights. The GIF of Propaganda is a balanced blend of the past and the present.

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Iteration 2: Marriage Equality and LGBTIQ Rights

When I first talked to Jess about the idea of the shelves, and "Shelving Responsibility" we talked about symbols. She told me that using objects to symbolise things was kind of cliche and that were I to do so I would have to create my own personal symbols.

It seems indeed cliche to use books and shelves together to create symbolism, but they are two components designed to fit together, and perfectly describe my own personal feelings on how society perceives different ideas such as, in this specific iteration, sexuality. As I tackled a big issue in my first iteration, I decided to either go hard or go home and followed with another well covered topic in the world. However in this one, I did focus more on representing "Shelving Responsibilities/Issues" in the image itself. The rights of LGBTIQ groups have been fought for with a passion and the issue of Marriage Equality is one that seems to be put on the back-burner in Australia at the moment, but is to become prominent in discussion soon. Until then, as I'm covering five different issues and I'm a firm believer in Marriage equality myself, I'd decided to follow my Asylum Seeker (Anti) Propaganda posters with a similar piece in style but with a subtly represented message (one that could be applied to most issues of discrimination). I used colour (Iconic Rainbow-Cliche LGBTIQ Symbol) again to enforce the underlying ideas, but the main concept is seen through the use of symbolism in the images (books and bookshelf) and the text. The symbolism of books as people and shelves as preconceived notions that people use to catergorise others and judge them as they deem fit accordingly, as well as genre representing sexuality in an abstract non-specific classification, while the text deals with the struggle of some to realise that choice is never a factor in sexuality and that forcing your opinions on others, especially those that go against human rights, is wrong and that it is not anyone's right to judge another. Giving comparisons and standards are common in slogans of propaganda posters.

It's subtle and simple in relation to my Asylum Series, but I find I like the symbolism and understatement, like at first glance it seems to be less and the more you look the more you find. The work is aptly titled: "Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover"

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Assessment Note:

My Iterations centre around a few key concepts- Human Rights, Equality, Australian Society and its Issues and Perceptions, the "Shelving" of responsibilities and the distractions that people use in their daily lives to remove themselves from (and procrastinate on) the Bigger Issues of this country and the rest of the world. They link through the idea that they are all "shelved responsibilities"

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Iteration 1: Asylum Seekers - A Series

My topic is Ways of Seeing.

After going through multiple ideas and becoming frustrated because I couldn’t connect well with any of them, I found a spark in an idea given to me during our class “Speed Dating”-Activity. With a focus on How Humanity Shelves/Ignores/Perceives The Bigger Problems in Life and Placement of Value, I looked at the ideas of War, Peace, Conflict and The Big Issues vs the Little Issues. I had originally started with the idea of symbolism using shelves, objects, etc. Unfortunately I found this a difficult focus to wrap my concept around so I started on a different branch, one sprung from the topics of War, Peace and Ignorance-Propaganda Posters.

Using photoshop, I created various Propaganda-like posters/Posters with a Message in order to represent people’s different opinions and ways of thinking on certain issues, more specifically issues in Australia today, for example Asylum Seekers.

Asylum Seekers are perceived in many different lights; some call them queue jumpers, others victims of circumstance. Either way you call it, it doesn’t change the fact that these are people seeking Asylum and as such are deemed refugees; whether they arrive via boat or these supposed “Proper Channels.”

I used many different photoshop techniques and tools, as well as text, to represent society’s often skewered perception in regards to the idea of Asylum Seekers and have created a series of posters as one iteration in order to highlight these different perspectives.

-"We Forget They Are People"- The repetition of the words and subsequent loss of each word as it is given, represents the idea that Australia has begun to forget that by signing the refugee agreement they have promised Asylum to any who seek and make it into our territory - no matter the channel or process. This idea has been lost due to the governments insistence that the boats need to be stopped. "We Forget They Are People" is a direct opposition to the government’s De-humanising slogan of "Stop the Boats". A blurring effect as well as a distinct reduction in colour is used to enforce the ideas of de-humanisation and the forgotten promise. This, while an issue to Australia and it's enforcement of the law as a whole, is also true for everyday Australians who sometimes forget that these are human beings, with the same rights as anyone else, and will often push away the issue as if it is someone else's responsibility to be morally correct and uphold human rights.

-"Facts 1 and 5"- Fact 1: It is NOT Illegal to seek Asylum in Australia even if arriving by boat.

Fact 5: The number of refugees who have arrived by boat, who have been terrorists = 0. These are facts provided by Amnesty International.

I have overlapped each of these facts onto pictures of asylum seekers on a boat in order to stress the importance of perception. The posters are all coloured in different ways to the original picture, and two of them are painted in greens and reds respectively, with darker tones in order to represent the way media and the government negatively depict Asylum Seekers/People Smugglers. Rather than focusing on the more important issues, such as improving the process of gaining refugee status and asylum as well as the conditions of detention centres, they "shelve" the bigger problems and bring attention to smaller details in order to positively sway the attention of the Australian public in their favour, making it seem like they're doing something to help the situation. These posters are probably more like common propaganda posters as they project messages through the use of text and colour as well as they underlying depicted imagery, as well as touching on typical ideas such as racism (the blatant racist connotations of assumed terrorism).

-"*Terms and Conditions Apply"- The few Australians that are truly ignorant of the struggles these strong and resilient people face, and as a result call them queue jumpers and country shoppers, de-humanising them as boat-people, thinking they're just looking for a sucker government and a free-ride. These people don't understand the desperation and suffering Asylum Seekers face. As a response to the negative stigma that surrounding "boat people", I have created a satirical poster, almost like those promoting resorts and holidays, that represents the view of this small minority in regards to Asylum Seekers, that while poking fun in the face of ignorance, also touches on the darker nature of the desperation it takes to embark on the perilous journey of being an Asylum Seeker. I played around quite a bit before finding a few that I liked enough to turn into a series. I call them Anti/Satirical Propaganda Posters. They got the ball rolling and lead to the other following iterations.