Proper Propaganda

Ideally, at this point, we should be approximately 85% completed the project. I think saying that I am 85% along would be rather optimistic, possibly delusional. However I do have the timeline and deliverables nailed down, so I think I’m doing ok. It’s just a matter of hammering them out and making them look, if not pretty, then how they are supposed to.
Please take a look at the presentation. It’s somewhat cute.

Principle Feedback
The institution of some sort of feedback system might be advisable. For instance, the ration book could include a postage paid response card to register, or something of the sort.
The website could transition after the launch of the campaign to be more information and contemporary.
The initial campaign and the visual poster campaign may need some sort of common element to solidly tie them together. 2018, perhaps?
The visual posters will need to go further to convey the idea of living in an environment saturated with this ecological propaganda.

Phase Three Presentation
Pp_Presentation_Phase_3_v1

The title pretty much says it all.

Again with the heated debates.
Art vs Design
Designer as Author
Concept vs Design
Student vs Teacher
Dogs vs Cats
Can’t we all just get along?

Anyway. Getting back to the project…
Morning
Went over a brief status update, which was brief as a result of my lack of significant progress over the last week. Presented some of my research on the ration card deliverable. It went over reasonably well, although it would definitely need to be simplified down from the system they used during the war. There wouldn’t be any newspaper followup to explain it, and frankly the system they used was confusing as shit.
The likely form would be ration coupons of some sort which entitle the holder to purchase X amount of whatever commodity would be scarce, gas, energy, etc.

Again the notion of a hard scary approach, vs a lighter approach that potentially makes use of humour to pass along the message. The rationale behind questioning it is that a hard/scary take on the subject has a very good chance of just coming off as preachy. Alex recommended that I create something for next week that carries the message from the other side of the board as well, recommending consumption at high levels and a “stay the course” sort of ideology, in order to get a better handle on how I can approach the topic effectively, and have an understanding of the other side’s perspective.

Afternoon
Not a whole lot.

For seminar we were asked to present a summation of our Phase Two research and concept development. This presentation uses simple graphic techniques to illustrate the stages the project has progressed so far, as well as featuring some of the most current visual explorations.

CoreVI_Presentation_Phase2_Oct2 (pdf 1.6mb)

Feedback
Well the concept seemed to hold up fairly well, and there were quite a few less blank stares than anticipated. Nelson offered an interesting suggestion. “Why can’t this be a contemporary piece, which projects the subject matter into the future, as opposed to a theoretical piece which existing in the future?” (paraphrasing heavily) The reasoning being, amongst other things, that it’s highly speculative trying to design for an audience that may potentially exist, as opposed to one that can be assessed today.
Thus the revision would be to still have the content of the campaign be a vision of a propagandistic future, but frame it as a warning/premonition for people today. The only difficult part of that to assess would be how far to push the visual language towards the totalitarian, since it would need to be reasonably overt to come through.
Tricky.

Concept Development
Determine the audience.
Select the key environmental issues to focus on (Plan B)
Determine the application of federal legislation to those issues (Plan B, CBC)

People to Contact
Change Design Done. Meeting tentatively scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Lester Brown (again) Done. No response yet. Email again tomorrow.
The Heritage Moment creators In progress (have to call toronto office)

Further Research Subjects
Goebbels (SS) and Nazi war propaganda, both international and domestic, to see how his department applied techniques. In progress
Prepackaged media promotions of Greenpeace. Still no luck. Emailed Mateesco for references.
Foucault and his writings on surveillance and fear. In progress (reading)
Orwell’s writing and Stalin’s portrayal to see how they used the same figures to apply to multiple audience segments.

Deliverables
Revised proposal with bibliography.
Three basic concept iterations.
Mood boards? Maybe.

Observations
Apparently Heritage Moments (Historica Minutes) have a pretty potent effect, on both a Canadian audience, as well as on impressionable Filipinas. Their propagandistic nature might be debatable, but they definitely serve a purpose in invoking a sense of patriotic pride, in a subtle way. It’s worth noting that part of the reason why the Heritage Moments have found such a deeply rooted place in the psyche of the average Canadian is due to their proliferation across the airways for a number of years.
Part of the reason that they got so much airtime was in fact a result of indirect government intervention. Every broadcaster in Canada is required to show a certain amount of Canadian content in their programming. One hour of Canadian content for every 6 hours of something of the sort. While most of the time it gets counted minute by minute, the Heritage Minutes were counted as 90 seconds or 2 minutes (something like that) of national content, despite their set length of 60 seconds. This allowed broadcasters to use them to meet their content quotas more efficiently.
This sort of “soft propaganda” seems to resonate with Canadians, but in the context of this project, would the a harder approach be more effective in sparking discussions amongst viewers?

Discussion with Alex:
Research into Foucault and his writings on surveillance and fear.
Look at the work of Goebbels (SS) and see how his department applied techniques.
Look at Orwell’s writing and Stalin’s portrayal to see how they used the same figures to apply to multiple audience segments.
Review the prepackaged media promotions of Greenpeace.
Consider the media that will be used, and it applicability to the audience.
Contact the people who made the Heritage Moments to get some insights into the format they used.

No, I didn’t make this during class before presenting. Whatever would give you that idea?

And it seems to be ok at the moment. Had the first class for Workshop today. Went through and discussed the class’s various concepts for their first semester grad projects. A lot sound pretty cool, a few like they need some work or a bit more thinking through, but overall it seems like I have landed myself with a good bunch, which is reassuring, since the instructor tends to play a much smaller role than the class mates. People aren’t talking yet, except for those (yours truly included) who always do.
So, general concept got the ok. Was cautioned, rightly so, on the potential for coming on too strong and spooking people, or coming off as too fascist, which I can understand, even if I don’t necessarily disagree with the facist approach in regards to this particular situation.
The notion of greenwashing, and how to try to cut through it came up, which was to be expected. One other point that was raised was the usually soft approach that propaganda takes, lulling the viewer into a belief gently. The flip side of that is propaganda to inspire fear, which I think is also (albeit a little on the reprehensible side) a valuable approach to consider when drastic times warrant it. I’m sure there are many moral and ethical quandries that could arise from that approach, but when the alternative is considered, maybe worth considering?
Hmm…can’t quite imagine designing something specifically intended to make someone afraid enough to do something though. Curiously appealing though, in it’s own little way.