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Posted by Jason Urban on March 7th, 2010 |  Voices in Green: Creative Practices in Response to the 2009 Iranian Presidential Election, organized by University of Texas art history doctoral student Roja Najafi, is “an archival exhibition focusing on art and activism around the Iranian Green Movement.” The show, recently on view at UT’s FAB Gallery, featured a physical collection of posters but all of the images were originally disseminated via the internet during 2009’s Green Revolution.
It seems important to note that the posters were printed far from the turbulent streets of Tehran. Historically, printed matter in the form of posters have had great value as agents of change and means of spreading messages. While that tradition does continue, this exhibition raises some interesting questions about the changing role of the poster in political protest. The advent of the internet and digital technology have undoubtedly had an effect- notions of authorship, authenticity, distribution and ownership all become malleable. In the case of Voices in Green, these posters serve as a teaching tool for a distant culture to learn of Iranian struggles for fair elections as opposed to functional documents of protest. Maybe it’s obvious to say but thanks to the web, people across the planet can appreciate near “real time” cultural artifacts as an act of solidarity or, perhaps to more cynical eyes, cultural tourism.
The exhibition is a solid one on any number of levels… as a collection of images, as historical documents, as a reflection on changing technology. Here’s a few more Printeresting posts about the Iranian election.
 Above is a detail… the pixelation is quite apparent upon close inspection and stands in stark contrast to “fine art” digital images that seek to hide their underlying structure through greater resolution. The evidence of pixelation serves to make the images more immediate and augment their message. It speaks to the origin of these posters and seems appropriate to the subject.
A bunch more pictures after the jump…
Read More After the Jump Iranian Political Graphics: Internet Dissemination
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Posted by amze on December 9th, 2009 | 
With all the the sad or violent news coming from Somalia in recent years, I’ve been interested in learning more about the history of the place. Besides spawning economies based on piracy and kidnapping and a seemingly never ending civil war, how do the people there get by? What sort of complicated colonial history lead them to this point. Anyway, this research lead me to two very interesting troves of compelling historical printed ephemera from the region. The first is a preservation project called: Mogadishu: Images from the Past. This site is one-person attempt to, “provide a cartographic and photographic record of Mogadishu, Somalia, from the late 18th century to 1990, using materials I have collected over the years, and which I am still collecting”. It’s primarily a collection of beautiful, archival photographs, post cards and some archival audio and video, which are made strange by the meta-links to ariel view google satellite images of depicting the ruins there now.
This site is complimented by a click-trip to the Somali Poster Preservation Project, an unexpectedly large archive of Somali political posters.
Follow the link for more images.
Posted by Jason Urban on December 8th, 2009 | 
With Iranian protests in the news, it may be a good time to consider the future of political graphics and their traditional material form- the poster. A fundamental truth of Printmaking is it’s identity as “the democratic art.” Sometimes to the point of cliche, prints are cited as a tool of political empowerment. While fine art prints often live in a world of white-walled galleries and archival framing, print media still exists as a means of disseminating information and rallying movements. The real change for the political print in recent years is its distribution model.
Rather than a printer toiling away in a shop, producing posters by the stack, images are communicated electronically and “the people” print their own. While something tactile is lost, the political print is a utilitarian object and must ultimately use the means most suited to it’s end. In 2009, that translates into downloadable graphics and the desktop printer. Here are some examples from Iran…
Which is not to say the old-fashioned approach to poster production is completely gone. LA street artist Brohmeini made some solid iconic posters over the summer inspired by events in Iran. See more pics after the jump.
 Read More After the Jump Iranian Political Graphics
Posted by amze on July 26th, 2009 | 
Saturday’s New York Times ran an article written by Robert F. Forth and Nazila Fathi titled, Iran’s Opposition Calls Crackdown ‘Immoral’. The article explores the latest push-back by the opposition movement within Iran. It’s a smart article and required reading for those of us following the political turmoil surrounding the contested election.
Interestingly, the article also mentions world-wide solidarity protests, “In cities around the world on Saturday, protests against the election and its aftermath were held in a campaign coordinated by human rights groups.” While this one line summary doesn’t tell us much, the photo chosen to run with the article totally took my breath away. The photo take by Jacques Brinon/AP ran with the caption, “Parisians held images on Saturday of Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death in Iran demonstrations turned her into a symbol of protest.” The picture is an amazing one, as you can see it shows a crowd of protestors all assuming the identity of the victim Neda Agah-Soltan (slain by the police during a crack-down of the student protests to the Iranian election results) by holding up printed pictures of her face.
Neda Agah-Sultan’s image has been used in protest posters since her tragic death, often depicting still images from a video of her dying along with text. As shocking and painful as those posters and signs are, I find the ability of these new posters of her face and name have the ability to signifying solidarity with the victim and embody her role as a symbol for the ‘every-person’ in Iran a real transcendent moment for design in service to a political movement.
Posted by Jason Urban on July 13th, 2009 |  Favianna Rodriguez, I Stand with Sotomayor
Printeresting supports multilingual culture: ¡Muy printeresante!
It appears, for the moment at least, the more liberal side of American politics is continuing its embrace of iconic graphic imagery. The recent success of the Obama Hope poster has spilled over into new figures and issues (though admittedly to less overall fanfare). A current example, Presente.org has been promoting this downloadable “I Stand with Sotomayor” poster design by Favianna Rodriguez in anticipation of Sotomayor’s Confirmation Hearings.
Downloadable political prints like this one bring up some interesting issues. At the risk of overusing the “meta” prefix, the internet seems to be creating an era of Metaprint. Historically, images had to be distributed by physical means to affect change. The strategy of the political print was clear and simple: make a bunch of prints and get them out into the world so that your message reaches an audience. Now, distribution is executed through an electronic network and the message reaches the audience without a printed component. The print (if there is one) is the last step, a step farmed out to the audience as an optional souvenier.
Metaprint, fueled by digital image sharing technology, is increasing the power of print exponentially but also calling into question why we make physical prints in the first place.
Posted by Jason Urban on June 1st, 2009 | 
This is one of four public service posters designed by NY-based design firm Big Ant International for the Global Coalition for Peace. Amazing work for a good cause. BAI does a lot of really smart print campaigns… their projects for the Red Cross and BK Plastic Surgery are particularly sharp.
Posted by Jason Urban on May 8th, 2009 | Greenpeace to German Chancellor Angela Merkel: “go ahead and fix the banks, but fix global warming, too.”
Just when you were starting to forget the iconic Shepard Fairey Obama poster, it gets resuscitated to support another cause. Greenpeace is promoting a December climate conference in Copenhagen by posting these Angie-You-Can posters around Germany. While I feel an almost-nostalgic appreciation at the Fairey poster reference (has it really only been a few months since inauguration?), this image falls short of inspiring “hope”. Nice try, Greenpeace, but it’s time for a new design.
On a colloquial note, Merkelgraphics lacks the catchiness of Obamagraphics.
A downloadable PDF is generously available.
Posted by Jason Urban on November 1st, 2008 |
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