Collage photo; DM 530 Media, Meaning, and Audience llage presentation
Requirements:
5-7 minute presentation
Detailed outline:
Presentation using PowerPoint or Prezi
Collage or photomontage is the practice of putting together an image from already existing media objects. It has its roots in early 2om century art movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism. It also influenced later movements such as Situationism, Pop Art, and Postmodernism. Collage is most effective when it uses old media objects to create new meanings through original and unusual juxtapositions. The key operations of collage are not creation of original materials but selection and reorganization of existing materials.
For this assignment you should create a series of 3-5 collages from previously published media materials. Create a presentation (including outline) to explain the meaning of the composite set. You may create these collages using software (i.e. Photoshop) or via a literal cut-and-paste method. Think of your collages as forming an argument or story – a rhetorical act designed to appeal to a certain audience.
Please submit a detailed outline along with copies of your collages on the day of your presentation (this may be sent via the VSpace dropbox as well). Below are some classic examples of use of collage/photomontage along with commentary on their political and rhetorical meaning.
John Heartfield unleashed his sharpest satire on Hitler’s Fahrerkult (cult of the leader), the basis of German Fascism. These montages parody Hitler’s most iconic poses, gestures, and symbols to create the impression that one need only scratch the thin surface of Fascist propaganda to uncover its absurd reality. In this cover for the Arbeiter Il/ustrierfe Zeifung [Workers’I/lustrated Newspaper], Heartfield used a difference in scale to dramatize Hitler’s relationship to Germany’s wealthy and financially supportive industrialists. The leader is seen as a puppet whose now-infamous gesture reads as the acceptance of monetary influence.
(Andres Mario Zervigén, “Agitated Images: John Heartfield and German Photomontage, 1920- 1938,” J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012)
“he safety pin is used in [Jamie] Reid’s poster for the single ‘Anarchy in the UK’ by the Sex Pistols. The safety pins are used as a ‘connecting device‘ between the image of the torn and tattered British flag and the collaged ‘terrorist’ typography; connecting the two ready-made images physically and conceptually. The symbolism of the safety pin as a device which can connect and subvert the meaning of the individual source materials is a repetitive motif in Reid’s work.