Media Literacy Figure 3
or purchase preferred stocks. Indeed, there is even greater irony in the fact that these large firms used propaganda in the form of mass media to create the very housing bubble that triggered widespread speculation and global financial crisis (O’Brien and Williams, 2010). The gold symbol in the background of the print
alludes to a myth of the American revolutionary era. The folklore told that if a snake was severed, but the pieces were brought back together before sunset the snake would come back to life. The urgency that necessitated the formation of both TARP and Occupy is reminiscent of the urgency colonies felt to quickly unite against British oppressors before it was too late. However, there is a certain difference between the Occupy movement’s radicals and the activities surrounding TARP, where the political and economic leader’s of America frantically attempted to structurally unite the world’s largest cases of greed and fiscal mismanagement by a social elite. Although TARP may have been necessary to address the
American Revolution (Join, or Die) VS American Bailout (T.A.R.P.) VS Schlesinger (1984) Propaganda
day-to-day activities of a person, in a strictly visual sense, there is also the possibility of a more explicit sharing of ideas between this person (the wearer) and the other people they encounter. It is almost unavoidable to have any visual content on
our clothing that does not portray an idea or a message of some kind, whether commercial or political. It would be difficult to say that artistry on clothing does not have an intended audience to some degree. So, a t-shirt becomes an interesting medium for propaganda when we consider that users will not only be displaying the image, but potentially discussing the ideas that the art symbolizes with other agents. The t-shirt is a unique media form for one – the largely random mobility the platform, and two – the interpersonal possibilities between the social agent, who is physically displaying the propaganda media, and the media’s intended audience. By combining the two juxtaposing pieces of historical
propaganda media to create American Revolution (Join, or Die), what has been formed is a critical depiction of the founding American values and principles, in contrast with some of the realities from the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, American Bailout, and Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) of the late 2000’s. The initials representing specific states on the fragmented snake have been replaced with notations for the firms that represent the 5 largest sums of capital used by the US Treasury to either guarantee assets
pending economic apocalypse in America and worldwide, there is now growing awareness to the idea of long-term reform. Whether we see this reform appearing through Occupy’s retrospective dissidence, or perhaps coming from the state itself, there is a clear contrast between some of the founding American principles and the historical economic climate of late.
// Remy is in the fourth year of his undergraduate degree
at the university of Guelph, majoring in International Development, with a minor in Agricultural Sciences. Over the past year, Remy has been exploring different aesthetics through screen print media as a wearable art form, and continues to cultivate a portfolio of work which he hopes to represent a satirical dissidence contrasted with vulnerably expressed insights. Collections of his other print work can be viewed here.
Franklin, B. (1754). Join or Die. Washington, DC:
Library of Congress. Retrieved
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ item/2002695523/
Massad, T.G. (2011). Troubled Asset Relief Program: Three Year Anniversary Report. Washington, DC: United States Department of the Treasury.
O’Brien, R., and Williams, M. (2010). Global Political Economy.
New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. 391-396. Schlesinger, M.A. (1935). The Colonial Newspaper and Stamp
Act. The New England Quarterly, 8[1], 63-83. Wood, G.S. (1992). The Radicalism of the American Revolution.
New York, NY: Random House, Inc. K., Aaron. (2011). Equal. Retrieved http://www.occupytogether.
org/downloadable-posters/ iAM March 2012 41
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