The venue of the Chaumont Poster Festival ensured an audience of graphic designers from around Europe, creating an atmosphere where discussions of communication could be explored and argued. The year before I had visited the exhibition themed "political posters" and found a thriving community of active students and old time radicals. So we decided that the audience was open enough for work that challenged and questioned the role of design in society. There were 100 sets of the first project created - containing 16 screenprinted posters in two colours. Below are some of the texts and translations, however, some were image based and don't translate!

It could be you?
"In the early twentieth century the problem of production had been solved; after that, it was the problem of consumption that plagued society. In the 1950's and 60's consumer commodities and farm products began to pile up in towering mountains all over the western world. As much as possible was given away - but that threatened to subvert the open market. By 1980 the pro tem solution was to heap up the products and burn them - billions of dollars' worth, week after week. The Quizzes had helped, a trifle. If people couldn't afford to buy the expensive manufactured goods, they could still hope to win them. The economy was propped up for decades by elaborate give away devices that dispensed tons of glittering merchandise. But for every man who won a car and a refrigerator and a television set there were millions who didn't. Gradually, over the years, prizes in the Quizzes grew from material commodities to more realistic items: power and prestige. And at the top, the final exalted post: the dispenser of power, the Quizmaster. The disintegration of the social and economic system had been gradual. It went so deep that people lost faith in natural law itself. Nothing seemed stable or fixed; the universe was a sliding flux. Nobody could count on anything. Statistical prediction became popular; the very concept of cause and effect died out. People lost faith in the belief that they could control their own environment."
Philip K. Dick - World of Chance 1956.

Cela pourrait etre toi?
"A debut du vingtieme siecle, le probleme de la production etait resolu; apres quoi, ce fut le probleme de la consummation qui tourmenta la societe. Dans les annees 50 et 60, les produits de consommation et les produits agricoles commencerent a s'accumuler en montagnes gigantesques un peu partout dans le monde occidental. On distribuait le maximum sans compter, mais cela menacait de bouleverser le marche. A partir des annees 80, la solution - temporaire- fut d'entasser les produits et de les bruler - des millards de dollars partirent en fumee, semaine apres semaine. Le Grand Jeu-Concours a aide, un peu. Si les gens ne pouvaient s'offrir les oneereux produits manufactures, ils pouvaient toujours esperer les gagner. L'econonmie etait soutenue pour des decennies par des chaines de distribution offrant des tonnes de marchandises etincelantes. Mais pour chaque individu qui gagnait une voiture et un refrigerateur et un ensemble tele, des millions de personnes restaient sur le carreau. Progressivement, au fil des annees, les prix du Grand Jeu-Concours passerent des produits materiels a des "produits" moins palpables: le pouvoir et le prestige. Et au sommet, le poste de haut rang: le distributeur de pouvoir, le maitre du jeu La desintegration du systeme economique et social a ete progressive. Ell fut si profonde qu'elle fit pertre aux gens toute croyance a la loi naturelle elle-meme. Rien ne sembalit ni stable, ni fixe. Personne ne pouvait compter sur quoi que ce fut. Les previsions des statistiques devinrent populaires; le concept du cause a effet s'eteignit. Les gens n'oserent plus croie qu'ils pourraient controler leur environnement."
Philip K. Dick - World of Chance 1956.

Abuse of power
Cultural artifacts act as recognitions of a shared social space; a safety zone of comforting similarity and resistance to change" What happens when the change is enforced by imperialism, and those safety networks are denied? The designs I have appropriated from the South Pacific are from "Tapa Mats". They hold great cultural and sacred significance amongst the Polynesians, used in weddings, burials and ceremonial occasions. They are also given as gifts to visiting dignitaries. I have exposed through the redesign of the "Tapa Mat" the issue of the potential destruction of the peaceful South Pacific islands by current nuclear testing activities. The cultural artifact here becomes abused by the process of cultural imperialism, ie. the political and physical threat to these vulnerable colonies by the calculated intentions of those powerful Western nations. The piece of work represents through symbolism, the unfortunate irony of a once welcomed artifact now a vehicle for impending disaster.
Sorry; French Translation not available.

Traditionalismus kontra Kultur
Kultur 1 die Gesamtheit der geistigen und kuenstlerischen Lebensaeusserungen einer Gemeinschaft, eines Volkes A Politische Kultur; aus der Gemeinschaft hervorgehende Bestrebungen und Aeusserungsformen, die sich auf die politische und oder soziale Gestaltung des taeglichen Lebens beziehen wie Buergerinitiativen, alternatives Leben, Umweltschutz, kommunale Mitbestimmung, das In-Frage-Stellen von ueblichen Lebensformen und Lebenseinstellungen B zweite Kultur; Wertvorstellungen im Hinblick auf Kulturelles, die im Gegensatz zu den alten Wertvorstellungen (z. B. gegenueber den Klassikern) stehen 2 feine Lebensart, Erziehung und Bildung 3 Zucht von Bakterien und anderen Lebewesen auf Naehrboden 4 Nutzung, Pflege und Bebauung von Ackerboden 5 junger Bestand von Forstpflanzen 6 das Kultivieren Tradition 1 A Ueberlieferung, Herkommen B Brauch, Gewohnheit, Gepflogen- heit C das Tradieren, Weitergabe (an spaetere Generationen) 2 ausserbiblische, von der katholischen Kirche als verbindlich anerkannte Ueberlieferung von Glaubenslehren seit der Apostelzeit Traditionalismus 1 geistige Haltung, die bewusst an der Tradition fest- haelt, sich ihrer verbunden fuehlt und skeptisch allem Neuen gegenuebersteht 2 philosophisch-theologische Richtung des fruehen 19. Jahrhunderts in Frankreich, die alle religioesen und ethischen Begriffe auf die Ueberlieferung einer Uroffenbarung Gottes zurueckfuehrte und der Vernunft Erkenntnisvermoegen absprach Duden - Deutsches Fremdwoerterbuch This text shows how two different countries define culture, through their established dictionaries. The lines on the poster highlight the contradictions.
Sorry; Fr/Eng Translation not available.

Reconnaissances
Les objects decoratifs font figures d'elements stabilisateurs dans la societe, de reconnaisances symboliques d'une experience partagee. Equivalents adultes de la reconfortante couverture d'enfant, ou de son ours en peluche, ils sont la caricature miniature et inoffensive d'un monde au sein univers ou les animaux sont toujours amicaux, et la vie revient a un environnement plus simple, souvent champetre, ou les souvenirs de jeunesse defraichis recontrent des reveries mythiques a l'eau de rose. Les animaux de ferme nous rappellent un passe simple, naturel, ou la campagne etait une mer de verts et luxuriants p‰turages, et ou les animaux cabriollaient joyeusement dans l'herbe grasse des pres, bien avant l'invasion du macadam et des cites betonnees d'aujourd'hui. Des objects domestiques, familiers - bouilloires, pots a the, cruches et tasses (faisant invariablement reference au passe d'un vieux monde) nous nrappellent un environnement social idealise de domesticite et de coutumes. Et, bien sur, les animaux sauvages representes sur ces objets decoratifs ne sont jamais reellement sauvages. Avec de grands yeux doux et des tetes si expressives (presque humaines), ils font naitre la joie, l'empathie ou la sympathie, mais jamais la peur ou l'horreur de leurs equuivalents vivants. Ces animaux sont propres, steriles, apprivoises, et bons de nature - tailles pour notre environnement domestique.

work

We live in a society conditioned and developed by the media, where our perceptions, desires and thoughts have been suitably trained. Events, culture and news only exist whilst the media decides it worthy of coverage, discouraging any notion of relevance. We are born into it, work and relax in it; even when we rebel, the rebellion is often defined by it.

play

The media is governed by the consumer ethic of continuous renewal, repackaging old and safe ideas, ensuring the unexpected and contentious is removed There is always a new film to see, a new magazine to read and a new product to buy; each requiring our time, conversation and cash. A continuous reproduction of the image but never the dream.

consume

We come to a point where our social life is so completely immersed into the process of consumption through entertainment and instant culture , we feel unable to imagine any other existence. Increasingly, the situation has become self-fulfiling. The media has an ability to cover it's own tracks, conceal it's progress familiarise it's control as if it had always been there.

attack

The frenzied distribution of entertainment continues apace, feeding the media circus, fewer and fewer options are offered. At this point, solutions are not found in alternative lifestyles, as these only serve as an additions to an already saturated market. By seizing the media, questioning the various forms it uses, a platform can be created for serious challenge.

die

Travaille

Nous vivons dans une societe conditionnee par les medias, ou nos perceptions, desirs, et pensees ont ete convenablement faconnes. Les evenements, la culture et les informations existent dans la mesure ou les medias decident qu'ils meritent d'etre couverts, abandonnant toute notion de pertinence. Conditionnes, nous avons grandi; conditionnes, nous travaillons; conditionnes, nous nous resosons. Meme lorsque nous nous rebellons, cette rebellions est souvent, elleaussi, conditionnee.

Joue

Les medias sont regis par une ethique de consommation, celle du renouvelement constant, du recyclage des idees vieilles et sures, garantie contre l'inattendu et la contestation. Il y a toujours un nouveau film a voir, un nouveau magazine a lire et un nouveau bien a acheter; chacun reclamant notre temps, notre conversation, notre argent. Une reproduction continue de l'image mais jamais du reve

Consomme

Nous arrivons a un point ou notre vie sociale est completement immergee dans le processus de consummation a travers le spectacle et la culture immediate, nous nous sentons incapables d'imaginer une autre existence. De plus en plus, la situation est devenue autarcique. Les medias ont une certaine habilete a couvrir leurs propres traces, en dissimulant tout proges et en habituant les gens a son controle comme s'il avait toujours existe.

Attaque

La distribution frenetique des spectacles se poursuit rapidement, nourrissant le cirque des medias. De moins en moins de choix sont offerts. A L'heure actuelle, les modes de vie alternatifs n'offrent aucune solution, dans la mesure ou ils se heurtent a un marche deja sature. En s'emparant des medias, en remettant en question leurs formules, nous pouvons creer une tribune et lancer un serieux debat.

Mourir

Blood Money
A recent MORI poll stated that 80% of Americans and 74% of the British favoured the death penalty. Every modern society witnesses a conflict between a perceived necessity of punishment and an uneasiness with its practice. Debate over capital punishment will always continue passionately unresolved, but this is not the issue I am dealing with. I wish to focus on Execution as Entertainment... Now it seems the last degrading moments of the condemned has been turned into a consumer product to be bought and sold for profit. A video to be watched and re-played, freeze framed, rewound, savoured; the spectacle of death. I refer specifically to a video titled "Executions" which went on sale in England last year, a disturbing new trend of voyeuristic entertainment, so popular it sold out before it could be banned. When you see it categorised as 'special interest' on the shelves at HMV along with soft porn, Police Stop, and the OJ Simpson car chase, you realise the market it is aimed at. It is not as the producers say "making an important statement about the horrors of capital punishment" or that " it is a serious document based on academic research." The video is of 21 real life executions, and being 55 minutes of lingering footage of people being shot, beheaded and gassed. And if that was not enough, they now plan to profit from a sequel of hangings. The company says "in 55 minutes we aim to dispel the myth of humane executions" How many executions do you have to witness before you are persuaded executions are inhumane? The placing of the video in the field of entertainment seems confusing. The format of a video suggests the marketing phrases such as "yours to own, to enjoy in your home, to watch again and again at your leisure". It is a format which has to be actively bought for hard cash (£13.99) or rented from your friendly neighbourhood video store (50p overnight rental) as a little light entertainment for the weekend. It seems to me then, that the only ones to gain from the condemned are the companies profiting or the voyeurs who get their kicks from the last minutes of others final degradation.
Sorry; French Translation not available.

Similarity
Real life drama has become a major source of entertainment, particularly within the medium of television - a passive audience can find comfort in their personal relationship to the "ordinary", and an affinity with the cultural recognitions offered as reassurance of a shared social universe within which we all act a part. The audience becomes the subject in a continual loop of spectacular feedback, and an inherently conservative peer group pressure maintains the stability (read ' banality') of the status quo. The nature of lived experience does not change, because the agenda within which it operates is presented as a permanent fixture. Ideological codes are disseminated and reinforced, and a set of cultural boundaries is put into place - imposing its own limitations on the way an individual should act and determining the actions available to them. Opposition to a dominant ideology is forced to act within this realm of possibilities - it is a product of that which it sets out to oppose. Resistance is not futile, but it must be targeted at the level of mediation of cultural codes, rather than at the superficial products of the codes themselves. "What is termed culture reflects, but also prefigures the possibilities of organisation of life in society.
Sorry; French Translation not available.

Virtuality
Virtual reality's ultimate goal is to mimic reality to the point where it is indistinguishable from reality. It then becomes reality itself and ceases to be virtual, denying itself. Virtual reality tries to describe its own visual culture, but it feeds off the potent images of science fiction already present in culture at large. It cannot exist as something separate.
Sorry; French Translation not available.

Imposition / Construction
Raises the issue of the imposition of culture through trans-national advertising and the construction of gender and age specific cultures that demand consumption
Sorry; French Translation not available.

Resurrection
Beyond the allure of the technology and the violence, the chance to become a samouri warrior or a space amazon, and the challenge of publically signing your name at the top of a champion's score board, the arcade video game promises the miracle of resurrection for every fifty pence. Choose to become one of ten deadly new characters. Insert coin and ascend Who's to say you've not come back many times before? press 'fire' to reincarnate.

Au-dela de l'attirance pour la technologie et la violence, de l'occasion de devenir un guerrier samoura• ou une amazone de l'espace, et du defi consistant a mettre ton nom au top des meilleurs scores, le jeu video d'arcade promet le miracle.

In attempting to criticise "culture", we occupy a dubious position. Our discontent is due, at least in part, to that culture we seek to criticise. Attempts at "cultural intervention" are meaningless without an understanding of the nature of cultural production and the transference of ideological codes from a dominant hierarchy to a received social "reality".

Reality is a social construction, passed on as existent fact; to deny reality is to deny our existence as physical entities in a social space - for we have no other means by which to understand ourselves.

Language guides the way that we think our words are not an expression of abstract thoughts, but a part of a logical construction as a means to expression; in using existing codes and conventions of language, the writer reproduces the existing ideological codes inherent to that language.

Culture is created by man - social organisation, history, politics, ideological codes, common values and understanding are all passed on from generation to generation as factual information, and structure thought processes accordingly; man is created by culture.

Conformity and rebellion are borne of the same cultural tradition, that system which allows us to act; we cannot somehow liberate ourselves from these social structures, for their existence enables any and all activity on our part.

The producer of cultural artifacts has some degree of control over the methods and nature of those recognitions he produces, and acts as a mediator in the communication of ideological codes; as such, he can effect change by intervention in the act of communication.
Carrion Culture: June 1996

En entprenant de critiquer la "culture", nous occupons une position equivoque. Notre malaise est du, en partie du moins, a cette culture que nous cherchons a critiquer. Les tentatives d'"intervention culturelle" sont denuees de sens sans une comprehension de la production culturelle et le transfert des cones ideologiques depuis une hierarchie dominante vers une "realite" sociale recue.

La realite est une construction sociale, transmise comme un fait existant. Nier la realite c'est nier notre existence en tant qu'entiites physiques dans un espace social - car n'avons aucun autre moyen de nous comprendre nous-memes.

Le language guide notre facon de penser - nos mots sont pas l'expression de pens«es abstraites, mais le roulage d'une construction logique permettant l'expression; en utilisant les codes et conventions existants du language, l'ecrivain reproduit les cod es ideologiques existants inherents a ce language.

La culture est cree par l'homme. L'homme est cree par la culture - l'organisation sociale, l'histoire, la politique, les codes ideologiques, les valeurs communes et la comprehension sont tous transmis de generation en generation comme une information factuelle, et il en va de memes pour les processus de structure de la pensee.

Conformite et rebellion sont portes par la meme tradition culturelle, ce systeme qui nous permet d'agir; nous ne pouvons nous liberer en aucune facon de ces structures sociales, car leur existence nous permet toute activite, quelle qu'elle soit.

Le producteur de fabrications culturelles a un certain degre de controle sur les methodes et la nature de ces reconnaissances qu'il produit, et il agit comme mediateur dans la communication de codes ideologiques; en taut que tel, il peut effectuer un changement a travers une intervention dans l'acte de communication. Carrion Culture: June 1996