d&ad student awards project
troops refusing to fight After looking at the briefs for this year's d&ad awards, i was disappointed with the choices on offer. Last years briefs covered more humanitarian and ecological themes, a marked contrast from the big advertising briefs included this time around.
After seeing the army recruitment brief, i really began to wonder what was going on there at d&ad (can't help thinking that looks like it's written 'DEAD', instead 'D&AD when i catch it out the corner of my eye), and i began flirting with the idea of making an anti-war promotional campaign, making a poster advertising some of the experiences that are usually omitted from army recruitment ads. Just a few things like statistics on wounded and maimed soldiers, or those suffering from P.S.T.D, and the lack of care and compensation on returning, or things like the gross misuse of public funds, for illegal wars searching for non-existent weapons of mass destruction, while and various other evils perpetrated in the name of king and country.
After Andreas mentioned he was thinking of something similar, we decided to team up and see if it could be done in a way that fulfilled the demands brief, while at the same time 'getting away with murder' and making something that totally opposed what the brief really wanted - to recruit more cannon fodder into the war machine - a machine which is getting away with murder every day in Iraq. Some great words of encouragement form Micheál then kick started the research with renewed enthusiasm. Doing this project in a subversive way also is relevent in relation to culture jamming theory explored in the Transmediale festival we recently attended in sunny Berlin.
It soon became apparent that there was so many controversial issues that could be covered with this project, that some clears limitations were needed. It also was pretty soon obvious that it was going to tough going, some disturbing figures and statistics soon reared their ugly heads, as well as some sickening websites. One had many images graphically portraying injured, maimed and dead Iraqi children and babies by coalition forces, which I had to immediately close down before I threw up over the monitor.(i didn't include it in the list of links below)
Three main ideas were initially explored, to help concentrate research and idea developement.
1 - Tech war - focusing on surveillance, spying, internet tracking, covert-ops etc, weapons developement,
2 - money theme - to cover massive military spending, lack of compensation for injury/trauma victims, lack of kit for soldiers etc
3 - skill swap - transfereable skills- thugs/cannon fodder, pizza delivery/nuclear arms transportation etc, G.P doctors/M*A*S*H style field doctors.
Various themes were aslo discussed, different styles/look and feel to be explored further. These included
1 - computer game 3D models -except the soldiers are in wheelchairs, or maimed/traumatised
2 - military style - parody of army ad campaign, fatigues, write your name on bullet application form
3 - soviet/german WW2 propaganda poster style - bauhaus style iconic imagery
4 - bling 'money asthetic' - piles of misspent cash etc.
5 - newspaper style - bug headlines, news reports of atrocities etc.
Here is a quick list of initial links in no particular order, for further research later on.
After seeing the army recruitment brief, i really began to wonder what was going on there at d&ad (can't help thinking that looks like it's written 'DEAD', instead 'D&AD when i catch it out the corner of my eye), and i began flirting with the idea of making an anti-war promotional campaign, making a poster advertising some of the experiences that are usually omitted from army recruitment ads. Just a few things like statistics on wounded and maimed soldiers, or those suffering from P.S.T.D, and the lack of care and compensation on returning, or things like the gross misuse of public funds, for illegal wars searching for non-existent weapons of mass destruction, while and various other evils perpetrated in the name of king and country.
After Andreas mentioned he was thinking of something similar, we decided to team up and see if it could be done in a way that fulfilled the demands brief, while at the same time 'getting away with murder' and making something that totally opposed what the brief really wanted - to recruit more cannon fodder into the war machine - a machine which is getting away with murder every day in Iraq. Some great words of encouragement form Micheál then kick started the research with renewed enthusiasm. Doing this project in a subversive way also is relevent in relation to culture jamming theory explored in the Transmediale festival we recently attended in sunny Berlin.
It soon became apparent that there was so many controversial issues that could be covered with this project, that some clears limitations were needed. It also was pretty soon obvious that it was going to tough going, some disturbing figures and statistics soon reared their ugly heads, as well as some sickening websites. One had many images graphically portraying injured, maimed and dead Iraqi children and babies by coalition forces, which I had to immediately close down before I threw up over the monitor.(i didn't include it in the list of links below)
Three main ideas were initially explored, to help concentrate research and idea developement.
1 - Tech war - focusing on surveillance, spying, internet tracking, covert-ops etc, weapons developement,
2 - money theme - to cover massive military spending, lack of compensation for injury/trauma victims, lack of kit for soldiers etc
3 - skill swap - transfereable skills- thugs/cannon fodder, pizza delivery/nuclear arms transportation etc, G.P doctors/M*A*S*H style field doctors.
Various themes were aslo discussed, different styles/look and feel to be explored further. These included
1 - computer game 3D models -except the soldiers are in wheelchairs, or maimed/traumatised
2 - military style - parody of army ad campaign, fatigues, write your name on bullet application form
3 - soviet/german WW2 propaganda poster style - bauhaus style iconic imagery
4 - bling 'money asthetic' - piles of misspent cash etc.
5 - newspaper style - bug headlines, news reports of atrocities etc.
Here is a quick list of initial links in no particular order, for further research later on.
uk taliban training camps
gulf war return medals
families speak out against war
combat stress
soldiers beat iraqi teenagers
support group for war veterans
iraq body count
list of news reports about army compensation
11,000 uk soldiers desert from iraq war
more soldiers quit than are recruited
25% TA soldiers, 19% regular soldiers suffer from PTSD
army recruitment campaigns misleading
PTSD suffers denied help
army target '7 year olds' in ad campaign
amnesty international report on child recruitment
more to follow, there are lots of cans of worms around here, and I can't open them all at once.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment