Week 4 - Newspaper Covers and Propoganda
This week we were asked to undertake three separate tasks about the portrayal of our themes and to use these tasks as a way of considering the limited information we can put in our presentations.
Task #1 - Newspaper Cover
For this first task, we were asked to make a collage about our chosen topic. It had to be styled as if it was the newspaper announcing the discovery of our chosen topics. We had access to a number of magazines to take cuttings from. I quite enjoyed framing the narrative of my topic, Deep-Sea Trenches, only just having been discovered. However, I found difficulty in finding images for everything I wanted to convey from my research, such as sea life and the trenches themselves. Below is the poster I made:
Task #2 - Icon Creation
We were then given a very short amount of time (5-10 minutes) to produce a number of black and white thumbnail icons representing our themes. Mine are below:
In the first image, I depicted a cliff on the seafloor dropping into a void of question marks. I did this to represent the mystery that still surrounds the deep. This was also my aim with the second image, which is a vortex leading into the deep. My third image is a cross-section of a trench in comparison to life on land and was inspired by maps showing the process of subduction. My final image is a simple display of the ocean endlessly getting deeper while the walls close in.
Task #3 - Propoganda
Our third and final task was my favourite of the day. We had to get into groups and create propaganda for or against one of our topics. My group focused on "Swarms", and we were arguing against them. We started by gaining source material for our propoganda by going to the park in search of flocks of ducks, pidgeons, and maybe even flies or fish. On the walk over we also discussed spinning individualism as the "good" alternative to being in a swarm. We also decided to compare swarms to trade unions, causing our propoganda to have a particularly political look. We took pictures of a number of animals, and I also took images from the internet to make the below propoganda.
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We then presented our propaganda to the class. I also distributed printed versions around the room before the presentation for full effect. I really enjoyed this activity. Although it was not for me topic, it has encouraged me to think of fun ways of conveying my topic to the class. It has also taught me about the ways propaganda can influence peoples thinking subconsciously. I learned this when giving people the physical propaganda and realising that they were more receptive to our presentation and in agreement with our points.