art as persuasion

Art as Persuasion “art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it”

Berthold Brecht

Art is an overlooked form of persuasion

Persuasion’s traditional focus has been on oral and/or textual messages emphasis is on persuasion within

the “world of words” the role of images in general,

and art in particular, has been neglected

The traditional “layperson’s” view of art

Art is created for “art’s sake”

Representational view of art—art seeks to re-create or imitate reality

Romanticism—art seeks to idealize or romanticize reality

Decorative function—art needs to match the sofa, drapes, etc.

Dogs playing poker—kitsch at its finest

Thomas Kinkade, “Seaside Hideaway”—mall art

An enlightened view of art

Art serves more than an aesthetic or decorative function Just as

“rhetoric” is more than mere eloquence

Just as novels can provide more than mere entertainment

Artists express their opinions in and through their work

Art serves social and political ends

Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica,” which has been described as “the highest achievement in modernist political painting” (Clark, 1997), is a symbolic indictment of man’s cruelty to man during the Spanish civil war.

Gass & Seiter’s view

The proper study of the “art of persuasion” should include art as a form of persuasion.

Art satisfies the major requirements for persuasion: Intentionality Effects Symbolic action Free

choice/conscious awareness

Tracy Emin, “My Bed” postmodern feminist art

Controversial art Art can create

controversy, conflict, and even violence

The cover of the New Yorker depicted the Obamas as Muslim extremists

Islamic extremists rioted after a Danish cartoonist drew caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad

More controversial art

Blessed Art Thou, by Kate Kretz

My Sweet Lord, byCosimo Cavallero

Napalm, by Banksy

Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston, by Daniel Edward’s

Art shines a spotlight on society

Van Thanh Rudd homage to Banksy

Chris Ofili’s Virgin Mary

Daniel Edwards’ Octo Mom

Art as a political tool of governments Greek friezes and frescoes

taught citizens moral lessons involving Greek gods and Greek mythology.

The Catholic church commissioned thousands of works of art to promote Catholicism

Politicized art: totalitarian governments used art to further the ends of the state The doctrine of “Socialist

realism”

“Roses for Stalin”

dedicated members of the proletariat work happily during the industrial age

Chinese revolutionary art Under Mao,

art’s purpose was to promote communist ideology

Poster art deified Chairman Mao

Poster art promoted the ideals of the cultural revolution

Pro-Government Art in the U.S.A. This painting depicts the “New Deal”

bringing electricity to rural America. At the time nine out of ten farms had no electricity. (David Stone, Electrification, 1940)

Art directed against governments or society Eugene Delacroix’s, “Liberty

Leading the People,”(1830) both endorses and romanticizes the French revolution.

Picasso’s “Guernica” exposes the horrors of war

Diego Rivera’s murals depicted the subjugation of the peasant class

Edvuard Munch’s “The Scream” (1893) expresses a mixture of anxiety, fear and dread toward society

Guerilla street artist “Banksy” uses stencils to offer social commentary

public art controversies

Recent social controversies demonstrate the persuasive potential of art A proposal to build a

monument to the firefighters at ground zero was scrapped after a feud erupted over what race the firefighters should be.

Obama-Hitler analogy

How Art Persuades Art shines a spotlight on society.

Awareness via consciousness raising The “Guerilla Girls” movement

Awareness through interpretation Suzanne Lacy, “Three Weeks in May”

Awareness through participation Wafa Bilal’s “Shoot an Iraqi” project The Names Project

Art with a social conscience Aschcroft Versus Lady Justice

John Ashcroft’s covered the bare breasts of the Majesty of Justice (known as Minnie Lou) in the Great Hall of the Justice department

Aschroft said he wasn’t comfortable being photographed at press conferences in front of the her large, aluminum breasts

The new, blue velvet drapes cost $8,000 Dread Scott Tyler and the

American Flag A Republican led group filed a lawsuit to

ban Dread Scott Tyler’s display, “What is the Proper Way to Display the U.S. Flag?”

The Judge dismissed the suit reminding the court works of art are protected under the First Amendment.

Three boobs in this picture?

Tyler’s “What is the Proper way to Display the American Flag” on display at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago

Art as a form of consciousness raising

The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) uses mural to address community issues, foster cross-cultural understanding, and promote civic dialogue

Art as an instrument for social change “Art has long been a powerful weapon in

the activist's arsenal.” (Fred Baerkircher) Artists use art to critique society and

promote social change Artists use art to engage the public and

increase public awareness of social issues

Activists who belong to the “Art and revolution project” protest multinational corporations and the WTO through performance art

Participation through interpretation Participation through

interpretation observers reflect on what an

exhibit means or what the artist is trying to say.

In their effort to understand the exhibit viewers engage in active thinking or central processing

Active participation (increasing involvement) observers don’t just observe they become part of the art Peggy Diggs “Domestic

Violence Milk Carton Project” Barbara Donachy, “Amber Waves of Grain”

Suzanne Lacy, “Three weeks in May” (1977)

Participatory art

Shoot an Iraqi: Wafaa Bilal lived in a room for 30 while Web viewers were allowed to shoot him via a remote-controlled paint gun.

Over 60,000 shots were fired by people from over 100 countries.

Art as consciousness raising--continued The AIDS memorial

quilt, a.k.a. the NAMES project the largest community

art project in the world hand-sewn folk art

panels commemorate those who have died of AIDS

the quilt is designed to increase awareness and decrease homophobia

each panel puts a human face on the grim statistics

traveling exhibits take the quilt to the people

“There was hope we could beat the disease by using the quilt as a symbol of solidarity, of family and community; there was hope that we could make a movement that would welcome people—men and women, gay and straight, of every age, race, faith, and background” (Cleve Jones, co-founder of the NAMES project).

How art persuades--iconicity

Images stand for and resemble the things they represent

Images can sum up a concept: the “trash can” icon in

Windows, female and male silhouettes on a restroom door

Paintings of portraits, landscapes, and still life are iconic representations of people, places, and things

Assorted icons

The bald eagle as an icon for America

An icon for ignoring a problem

Iconicity--continued

Iconic art needn’t be accurate, objective

Iconic art can glamorize, romanticize, stereotype, vilify Example: political

caricatures Example: paintings of the

crucifixion or the last supper

Example: Medieval paintings as allegories

Icons can evoke emotional responses in receivers

iconicity in political cartoons Pinocchio’s long

nose is an iconic representation lf lying

Depicting a politician with a long nose makes the visual claim that the politician is a liar.

Appropriating corporate icons Health Gap is an activist group

seeking increased awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS in Africa Coca Cola is the largest private

sector employer in Africa, but only 1.5% of Coke’s workers are eligible for HIV/AIDS drugs

Controversial art transforms a passive viewer into an active thinker may increase central

processing may trigger cognitive

dissonance

Indexicality in Goya’s art• Goya’s, “The

Third May” (1808) depicts Spanish partisans, arms outstretched, being ruthlessly gunned down by Napoleon's troops

• Notice: the painting offers visual “proof” that the atrocity took place.

IndexicalityThis painting by John Trumbull supposedly “documents” the signing of the Declaration of Independence. However, no such ceremony actually took place.

Indexicality--continued

The documentary aspect of images can be misleading Art can serve up

inaccurate records of events

Greek sculptures idealized the human body

Photographs can be airbrushed or digitally altered

When Time magazine reproduced O.J. Simpson’s picture on its cover, the image was darkened to make him appear more sinister and menacing

The Cottingly Fairies: In 1916 Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, perpetrated a hoax involving photos taken with fairies.

The camera always lies: the myth of photographic objectivity April 2, 2003: Brian Walski, a photographer for the

L.A. Times, digitally “doctored” a photograph of a British soldier guarding civilians. The photo was published on the front page of the L.A. Times

The photo, shown below, is actually a composite of the two separate photos on the right.

Walski was fired because "Times policy forbids altering the content of news photographs."

The camera always lies

More digital editing

You can’t trust what you can see… In the digital age, images are

malleable, changeable, fluid. In movies, advertisements, TV shows, magazines, we are constantly exposed to images created or altered by computers.

“photography is highly interpretive, ambiguous, culturally specific, and heavily dependent upon contextualization by text and layout.“

Fred Ritchin, In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography, New York: Aperture, 1990, 81.

Soon after 9/11, a camera was “found” on the sidewalk that happened to survive the collapse of the Twin Towers. When the film was developed, it revealed a tourist in the wrong place at the wrong time. The picture is a fake.

How art persuades—syntactic indeterminacy

Images, unlike language, lack logical operators

Images can’t convey: cause-effect relationships if-then relationships either-or relationships

Images can convey spatial relationships:

higher, lower, bigger, smaller

chronological relationships: before, after, the passage of time

analogies or comparisons

Joe Rosenthal’s photo of Iwo Jima, 1945

Tom Franklin’s photo of Ground zero, Sept. 11, 2001

But syntactic indeterminacy can be an advantage

Images can equate one thing with another via associations

The associations may be subtle or obvious

syntactic indeterminacy--continued Images as narratives: panels from Diego Rivera’s “History

of Mexico,” 1929-35 tell a story about the ongoing conquest and subjugation of the peasants

In conclusion Art can be controversial It can challenge the existing

social order. It can make people angry. It can

offend. It can heighten people’s

awareness. It can make people question their

assumptions. It can change the way they see things.

It can make them reconsider their assumptions.

In so doing, art persuades.