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- Volume 2, Issue 1, 2011
Poster, The - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2011
Volume 2, Issue 1, 2011
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The renaissance of 'Keep Calm and Carry On'
By Bex LewisABSTRACTIn the twenty-first century, 'Keep Calm and Carry On' and other Second World War posters have grown in popularity, particularly in the United Kingdom, but also globally. This article returns us to the original history of 'Keep Calm and Carry On': how it was planned, prepared, created and then abandoned in 1939. We consider why the Second World War remains important in British memories, and how the poster, rediscovered in 2000, has become so important in more recent times of recession.
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Happy accidents: Participatory culture and the public reconstruction of Bob Ross
By L. D. FalveyABSTRACTUsing American populist landscape artist Bob Ross as a case study, I examine how participatory culture can challenge elitist notions of 'high art'. Traditionally, the act of consecrating the artist and her work has been a polarizing, marginalizing 'private' performance that privileges a powerful cadre of 'taste makers' at the exclusion of the masses. Through the evaluation of a body of work on YouTube by amateurs who seek to replicate and parody Ross' thematic ideological and instructional messages, I suggest that this type of amateur production offers an alternate, oppositional read of Ross and provides him with a posthumous success that negates the elitist criticism that otherwise dismisses his work as trite and transparent.
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Security for sale! The visual rhetoric of marketing counter-terrorism technologies
More LessABSTRACTWhile much is written on government, legal and media discourses of security and counter-terrorism, very few studies turn a critical eye towards 'mediation' as it applies to the marketing of counter-terrorism technologies. Counter-terrorism technologies include everything from surveillance cameras to biometric scanners, data protection software to perimeter-security fencing. Together they comprise one of the largest, most profitable product sectors in the global economy. In this article I look at the visual corporate communication strategies used to market counter-terrorism technologies to both governments and the private sector. I use a dual method approach to perform this investigation. First, I conduct a visual analysis of promotional material produced by counter-terrorism technology manufacturers including product brochures and advertisements in defence magazines. Second, I draw from participant-observation research carried out over the past three years at counter-terrorism expos. This research offers insight into how discourses around security and counter-terrorism are shaped not only through government and military PR (as it is often spread through the mass media), but also by defence technology manufacturers and marketers ranging from major security conglomerates such as Group4Securicor and Magal Security Systems, to telecommunication giants including AT&T and IBM.
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REVIEW
By Simon DownsABSTRACTPOSTERS, PROPAGANDA AND PERSUASION IN ELECTIONS CAMPAIGNS AROUND THE WORLD AND THROUGH HISTORY, STEVEN A. SEIDMAN (2008) Peter Lang Publishing, 360 pp., ISBN 9780820486161, Paperback
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