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This is my magazine ad. It features Maya Angelou and its by Target. It's main appeal is Maya Angelou's endorsement and focuses on race. I think it's pretty tacky that a massive corporation like Target used Maya's image and heritage as a means to sell assorted products. I have a couple ideas for this ad.
1. Replace Maya with this:


Photoshop the kid's sign to become a red Target logo. I think it would be fitting because the original ad talks about the future of youths today.

2. Photoshop the picture of Malcolm X holding an AK and then have little Target tags hanging off everything, including the AK. The kind of tags that tell you what store you bought your clothes/furniture from.

3. Take a photo of a smiling African American kid and super impose a target on him.



This is my political Brochure. It's Chap Petersen and Mark Warner at a meeting, smiling. The layout is pretty simplistic to connotate a personal feel. I was thinking about playing off the caption by photoshopping Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel's god finger in place of Mark Warner.




My third thing is Peter Pan Peanut Butter. This is targeted at kids and adults, referencing the nostalgia of Peter Pan and childhood. Maybe I could photoshop the fairy to look like its trapped inside of the jar. Maybe have the fairy drowning in the peanut butter.

Obey

I like the concept of the random Obey GIANT stickers. The stylistic similarities to old-school propaganda make the viewer pause for a second and wonder what the hell it means. It brings up questions about the spaces we live in and the bombardment of visual communication we endure. I liked the effect of the stickers on billboards. The large, repeated "obey" subverts the advertisement completely.

Banksy

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/images/newerrats/RAT1.jpg

I really like this image. It's a rebellious but playful gesture. It made me question exactly how much of our individual rights and activities we hand over to anonymous signs. I also like the whole rat-race metaphor and how Banksy manages to subvert the negative connotations of deceitful, treacherous rat, into the symbol for an oppressed population that is FORCED to make deceitful and treacherous decisions.

Adbuster blog

The article I'm blogging on can be found here:
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/74/Legacy.html

This article is a short piece on Vietnam War-era unexploded ordnance in Laos. The author, Amy Wahbe, alleges that the unexploded ordnance prevents farmers from farming and developers from developing. Wahbe implies that the bombs have single-handedly crippled Laos.

Wahbe also tacks on a paragraph describing the oblivious tourists and natural, unexploited beauty of Laos. She closes the article with a few sentences about poverty-stricken Laotians and finally leaves us with the information that although there are a few groups clearing the mines, it will take hundreds of years to remove all of them.

Overall, I'm slightly skeptical of this article. I am not a fan of overt emotional manipulation, which this article has in spades. Wahbe is constantly exhorting the lush greenery of Laos and the Laotians as if the poor peasants of Laos aspire to being nothing but idyllic farmers. Wahbe uses the paragraph on tourists to evoke feelings of resentment towards the economic gap.

I am not saying that what Wahbe wrote was incorrect, but simplifying the situation to black and white only promotes ignorance. I am absolutely positive that there are more factors involved in Laos's economic destitution than unexploded ordnance.

It is a real tragedy that Laotions have to deal with and die from unexploded ordnance. However, I think that an article that took in the multiple factors of the Laotian environment, and explored the multiple drives behind the factors, would have prmoted a more practical awareness of the Laotian situation. An awareness that could actually be funneled into action.

Irene Clouthier

It was very interesting to hear Irene Clouthier speak from a working artist's point of view. I was a little disappointed to hear that she had to freelance as a graphic designer to support herself; that's just part of the game. Mrs. Clouthier mentioned that she has to divide her time between marketing her material and making her material which is also another gut check for aspiring artists. Mrs. Clouthier also spoke on how unpredictable the flow of creativity can be.

In terms of Mrs. Clouthier's work, I think it was interesting to see what she created within the technical limitations of the past. Alot of her work has a surreal, collage feel.

Movies

Dislocation

For the 10 second dislocation clip, I'm going to try to play around with reflections within reflections like mirrors facing each other and expand on that theme.

Disembodiment

For disembodiment, I was thinking about taking a bunch of clips of my friend breakdancing and overlapping/ghosting them together with clips of nature/ animals.

Disconnection

Maybe film a card trick and cut that up with different people doing the same trick, maybe even hanging locations.