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Subversive Art

Art has long been used to convey messages that are subversive, even revolutionary. Artists have often paid with their freedom, careers or even their lives for presenting ideas which were unflattering to the authorities of the day.

In this assignment, you’re not being asked to foment revolution, or risk being blacklisted and starving to death. But you are asked to question a predominant force in our society, and create an artwork that subverts this force, turning it on itself to express a contrary point of view.

The force in question is advertising. Some of our most powerful cultural icons are brand logos (the Nike swoosh, the golden arches). Billions of dollars are poured into ad campaigns, convincing us to buy a product, a brand image or a message. Many ads are extremely sophisticated, both in their visuals and in the many subtle levels at which they work. Advertising is woven right into the plots of movies and TV shows we watch.

Many of us feel relatively immune to advertising, and think questioning it is jus being cranky! But consider this:

Why would such massive amounts of money (funding almost all TV channels, for instance) continue be spent on advertising if it’s not working?
Have you or your family ever bought anything you didn’t really need, or gone shopping without having a specific list of items you need? What forces compel us to behave this way?
Look at the clothes you’re wearing, and all the things you’ve bought or received or given as presents in the last year. Do you decide everything you wear and purchase completely in a vacuum, or are you influenced by media?
A short time ago movies used to start with at most maybe one trailer for an upcoming feature. Now we not only accept several trailers, but have to watch commercials before seeing a movie we’ve already paid twelve bucks for. Product placement is often evident during the movie itself. Why do movies cost more yet also need advertising?
Since TV is largely paid for by advertisers, the corporations that fund TV have an enormous influence over what we get to see.

Okay, whether you’re a raging anti-consumerist or a shopaholic, hopefully you’ll agree that advertising is a powerful force in our culture. You job is to find a slick ad that bothers you on some level – maybe it’s the product or message it’s promoting, or maybe it’s the method of selling – a stereotyped view of teenagers, women or men, for instance, or using something you value (great music, nature or sex) to sell something mundane like a car. Or maybe it’s an ad that just seems to lie, or promote something you don’t think the company really stands for, like the wave of “green” environmental ads sponsored by oil companies.

The Assignment

(Save all files in the folder AWT4/Ad – original ad, altered ad & reflection)

Take an existing ad which is appealing and seductive (it’s too easy to poke holes in all the really obnoxious ads around us!)
Analyze what makes it work – images, symbols, appropriation and association with desirable things etc.
Analyze what harm it actually promotes (sexism, consumerism, stereotyping, making evil practices acceptable etc)
Use elements of the ad as a basis for a counter-ad – use the seductive qualities of the ad to lure your viewers into seeing your counter-message.
Reflect on what you’ve done

EXAMPLE – A how-to example featuring Master Distiller Jimmy “the bladder” !

Student Examples

AdBusters – examples from Vancouver “Culturejammers”

Requirements

You must start with an existing print ad, and keep a copy of it. The most suitable ads are likely from magazines. If you only have one copy and are going to alter it, photograph or scan the ad first.
The ad should be large and of high graphic quality, and contain a slogan or other text “copy”
You can approach its alteration in any medium you want as long as you get my approval. For instance, you could build a physical collage incorporating the ad, or a sculpture. Some of you may choose to work completely digitally, scanning the ad and altering in Photoshop for instance. If you’re bold and innovative, you might consider a piece of performance art!
Before you start, I want to see your ideas sketched out in your journal
The textual part of the ad must be altered in a significant way. Try to use the original style and feel as much as possible, while turning the message around or exposing it. Be subtle – succinct gentle satire is usually more persuasive than beating people over the head with your message.
Graphically, the message should also be altered while using the power of what’s already there. Add or alter existing pieces using the same style, tonal range, techniques, proportions, elements etc. as the original graphic artist. Ideally the ad will be visually expanded, but you wouldn’t notice at first glance.
Added graphic elements must be at least partially your own i.e. not just a collage of other images but some images drawn, painted, sculpted or photographed by you.
Write a quarter to half page reflection and hand in a hard copy. This should explain what you were trying to do, how you did it from a technical viewpoint, where you think you succeeded and where you could improve or take another approach. A bit of humility will get you further than unjustified arrogance… - see below for a bit more detail
Spend your class time working on this. If you have a brilliant inspiration and get it “done” in 15 minutes, or work at home and magically bring in the finished product, find a way to also work in class on related material – maybe an addition to your work, the reflection, another idea so you hand in two or three works, making notes and sketches in your journal or research into advertising. Not that you can’t chat, but Art class is a place for making, talking about and thinking about art, not doing Science homework, watching Utube videos and so on.
If you’re working on the computer, make a folder under AWT4 named Ad in which to keep all files related to your project. Clean out unnecessary files when you’re done.

Reflection

In a Word document named Ad Reflection.doc, saved in your AWT/Ad folder, reflect upon the following:

Why did you choose the ad you did? What bothered you about it so that you were inspired to alter it to become a subversive ad? Was it stretching the truth, selling a bad product slickly, was the tone of the ad offensive, sexist, just plain nauseating, or what?
What was your overall approach to subverting the ad (meaning using its own style, text, imagery etc. to turn it on itself)? You may think your approach is self-evident, but still, state what you were trying to achieve in case it’s not so obvious to me. For instance, an approach might have been to use an ad’s unique graphic style (like Ipod ads) and replace their images with your own in the same style that give an entirely different message, combined with alteration of the text to expose something bad about the product or style of the original ad.
What changes did you make to the text? Include additions, deletions, and alterations of words, phrases. Give some detail on how you did this, especially parts that took a lot of effort that might not be apparent.
What changes did you make to the graphics? Include additions, deletions, alterations of colour, lighting, features and so on, subtle or blatant. Again, give some detail on how you did this, especially parts that took a lot of effort that might not be apparent.
How well do you think you achieved your goal? Do you think people will “get it”? Is the result subtle or blatant? Might people think they’re looking at a real ad until they think about it?

Evaluation

Have fun with this, and do your creative best at really subverting an ad that needs it! Follow the guidelines above closely. If you hardly change the image at all, and the changes don’t follow the existing style (as required), that’s not going to get you as good of a mark as someone who makes extraordinary changes to the images and message yet still somehow manages to make it look and sound like the original ad.

Started with suitable ad, as specified, high resolution.	/5
Original scan, final ad (hi-res jpegs) and reflection easily identifiable in your AWT/Ad folder.	/5
Followed the style of the original	/10
Significantly and cleverly altered/added to the original graphics	/10
Significantly and cleverly altered/added to the original text message	/10
Visual appeal of overall result – looks professional; best possible job	/25
Powerful, subtle imaginative change of message; grasp of the concept of subverting existing images and messages	/15
Thoughtful, informative reflection	/10
TOTAL:	/90

Printing

I would like to display your ads, so here’s the deal. Viewers won’t really get what you’ve done unless they see the original along with the subverted ad. Create an 8.5 x 11 inch 200 dpi new document in Photoshop. Into it, copy and paste your original ad and the final subverted one. It’s easiest if you just use the Jpeg version for this. Resize them so they fit, landscape or portrait layout, with your final version more dominant. Also find a spot to add your name.

Save this as a jpeg named Ad Print.jpg, and arrange for me to help you print it.

Also open your Reflection and cut it down to a statement about what you were trying to accomplish in your subverted ad. Increase the font size to about 14, make sure that it has a titile and your name, and that it fits in about half a page. Then save as Reflection Print.doc, and print it on our laser printer (ComTech).

Thanks – it should be an interesting display!

Eat! Buy! Wear! Own! Want! Do It Now! Everyone else is!