The Propaganda Poster Challenge: Or, All You Need For Your First Art Show, And Then Some
An Art Show is a few days,
of where you make your art speak.
You can make it yell,
you can make it whisper.
You can make it relevant,
or it can be totally retro.
Please, understand,
being shy is beautiful.
And you will be beautiful,
for being shy.
There is no such a thing,
as a bad art show.
I will stress,
that everything needs to go into your portfolio.
I hate to say it, while this is not completely true, even your elder-self agrees:
"If it is not in your portfolio it didn't happen.".
So take all the pictures,
put them in neatly organized directories and back them up into multiple cloud services.
Make sure that once your hard drive dies, and it happens every few years,
nothing will be lost, other than a few minutes of your time as you replace it.
Sunaura Taylor's website,
is a nice example of what your website should contain.
But do keep the JavaScript to minimum,
and setup https, at the time of writing GitHub Pages seem a OK.
My first art-show took 12 hours to setup,
and that included painting all the art.
I used a projector,
canvas paper, couple of canvas, I did not use frames.
I just hung everything up at a coffeehouse,
and took it down a week or two later.
Though I didn't intend to sell anything,
I had one sale.
It frightened me,
because people that pay for my art seem suspicious.
I had labels describing the meaning of my art,
I wanted to share the meaning.
Previously, I invented (or probably independently invented)
a new kind of Art Form, I called it Content Art.
It means that there is a lot of content in the piece,
diagrams, mind maps, poems, and little codes that you can scan to go to websites.
Life got busy and I never had a Content Art show,
it evolved in a Symbolic Language that I would like to use in an educational setting.
Basically students have to create concept maps that help them through a game,
that consists of rooms, libraries, worlds - it is a school that teacher for real.
Every concept map is a mini game,
that unlocks doors and futures.
In that way, I guess,
I am yet to have that art show.
What I have here for you,
is also a challenge.
I am challenging you top create a series of Minimalist Content Art pieces,
for your first extremely outrageous, on topic, and if you want to to be Guerrilla art show.
Guerrilla Art shows,
is where you exhibit your art by just putting it up in places where it is seen.
Sometimes it is taken down,
sometimes you put it up again.
Sometimes, people take your art home,
and it makes them cry.
Sometimes they become free,
sometimes they just laugh.
Nothing bad ever happens,
unless you are as skittish as me about interacting with people that pay you for the damn things.
Take the money, tell them your house is on fire,
and run away.
The rules of the challenge are simple,
create five to then posters that are inspired by, or directly quote the text below.
It is OK not to come up with your own text,
I have put the text below in the public domain.
It is all good natured sarcasm,
but I don't like any of it.
I don't like talking about negative things,
even though, obviously this is all reverse psychology.
The challenge is about creating fake Propaganda Posters,
that when seen by a person on the street.
Or seen hanging in some abandoned office,
or nailed to a tree somewhere, or even blown down the street in the wind...
Will make the reader, pause,
and really take a deep look at what they are saying.
The poster,
is supposed to make them think.
If you are looking beyond Guerrilla Art,
then have a professional print them out, and then put a layer of glass over it, skip the expensive frames.
And if you want to go 3D,
buy some used briefcases, luggage, and create sculptures.
The theme of the show would be,
evil men who left their briefcases behind, or something similar.
Be warned, Guerrilla Art and Briefcases Do not mix,
you may go to jail or pay an enormous fine.
So briefcases are gallery only,
and I would set the price at 500 to a 1,000 bucks or your equivalent - it is just cool art.
Sometimes people will buy your art to befriend you,
that is not how friendships work, so be very careful and as suspicious as I am.
So let me formally disclaim the ownership of these texts,
so that you have no worries about anything.
"Please Note That The Following Text, is released into Public Domain,
For those of you looking for a specific license see WTFPL"
Allow me one more note for all the conspiracy lovers,
there is no conspiracy to hurt the world.
There maybe some fools pretending to take credit,
but they are not the reason.
The problem with the world today is lack of real and effective education,
from that point on the consequences only compound and complexity.
All the people that frighten us,
are just victims of fake education.
Universal income, where we borrow from the improved future of humanity,
and grant each human being a serious amount of money is a critical component of real education.
In short, a scared, or stressed out, or pressured by poverty person,
will not be able to fully develop an urge for respected Peer Reviewed Knowledge, and resulting internal wisdom.
It is that wisdom born of stable and clean and dependable knowledge,
that will assure control over climate change, collapse of ecosystems, loss of species, mass incarceration, nuclear threats, and so on.
We are nothing like some civilization destined to be forgotten,
Science and Wisdom will grow more powerful the more trouble we get into.
No political force can ever become greater,
than a well meaning scientist with all the evidence right behind her.
The improved schools will pose an enormous challenge to liars,
they will be required to retake tests.
The gravity of climate change and repair,
is such that the uneducated will be severely limited in their political powers - until they show Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and a Fine Grasp On Reality.
Don't worry, it is just that today Humanity is just a baby,
but this century it is destined to become as wise as a mighty and unstoppable teenager - we'll be OK.
To imagine the future, imagine it is 1920 right now,
and compare the 20's to the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and so on.
Now bring the magnitude of these changes out of 1920 into 2020,
and now by subtle analogy look into the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and so on.
It will all work out OK,
but the next century will not begin with ineffective education, as they will know where that shit will lead to now.
Without further adu,
here are the taglines for the posters:
On School And Education
Make Them Fear Powerful Books,
And Teach Them Textbooks Only.
Make Them Work Eight Hours Per Day In High School.
If They Complain About Work,
Bring Them To Heel To Eviscerate That Quirk.
Be Careful, Because Too Much Education,
Could End Wage Slavery In Our Nation.
To Protect Our Beautiful Nation,
Schools Must Ridicule And Speak Out Against Self Education,
To Easily Put Food On Your Table,
Trick Them All That They Are Unable.
Make Sure They Don't Figure Out,
That We Sold Them All Out.
Show Sass And Kiss Our Ass,
Because The Grades We Give You,
Can Make Or Break Your Job Interview.
Force Students Into Temporary Memorization,
To Make Them Better Servants Of This Nation.
A Productive Teacher Dumbs Down Tests And Education,
And Forces The Students Into Temporary Rote Memorization.
Fake Education Protects Our Nation.
A Well Educated Worker, Could Start A Revolution.
A Student That Retains Knowledge,
Must Be Forced Into Impossible Debt In College.
Don't Be A Tool,
Educated Voters Won't Vote For A Fool.
Defund Education,
To Prevent Student Agitation.
Your Position Is Worth A Ton,
Hire A Crook To Elect Your Son.
Shitty Textbooks,
Will Help Us Reelect Crooks.
Keep It At Student Debt Forgiveness,
Do Not Let Them Figure Out All Deserve A Refund.
Money Ideas
Even Though Money Is For The Banks,
Make The Fools Think That's How They Rise In Ranks.
Life Is Money.
Earn A Living.
Spend All Your Cash,
On Useless Trash.
Shorting Student Debt,
Is A Sure Fuc**g Bet.
Teach Them Universal Income Is Bad,
Otherwise They Will Rise Up And Get Mad.
Make Sure They Are All Sick, Poor, And Disagreeing,
Otherwise It Is A Hundred Bucks For Every Human Being.
Keep Them Thinking It Is Just Income Inequality,
And Not Universal Income Of The Highest Quality.
On Planet Earth,
Paycheck Is Your Worth.
We Should All Agree,
That Overwork Will Set You Free.
Keep 'Em Poor,
Force Them To Endure.
Religion
Force Them To Worship Men That Invented The Wheel Barrow,
And Their Thinking Will Be Simple, Shallow, And Narrow.
Teach Them That They Are Less,
And That You Are More,
And Watch Their Empty Eyes Adore.
Tell Them They Are All Born In Sin,
And That They Are Lost And Cannot Win.
Make Sure Not To Mention What We Got Away With,
Convince Them That It Is Just A Myth.
Military
Relax By Drinking Plenty Of Alcohol In Bars,
So That Our Generals Can Get More Kindergarten Stars.
To Quench Our Nation's Thirst,
Military Industrial Complex Must Come First.
We Don't Want You To Be Skilled.
Just Follow Our Directions And Be Strong Willed.
Educated Teenagers Make Bad Soldiers As They Can Actually Think,
Therefore, We Must Crush Them Into Smoking S**t And An Alcoholic Drink.
Find All The Ones That Are Strong And Tall,
And Lie To Them At The Mall.
Medicine
Hospitals Demand That You Become Overweight,
And Line Up At The Gate.
You Must Smile More Often,
Because Depression Is A Form Of Oppression.
Don't Be So Brittle
Pay For The Hospital,
With Your Family Capital.
Climate
Don't Be A Deadbeat,
Eat Plenty Of Meat.
Stand Proud For Stock Exchange.
And Tell Them Not To Change For Climate Change,
Make Sure They Never Figure Out,
That Destroying Nature Is Something We Are Too Old To Worry About.
Creativity
You Must Give Up Your Creativity,
To Increase Your Productivity.
Laugh At Their Rhymes,
To Trick Them Into Working For Dimes.
Thinking With Your Heart,
Won't Make You Smart.
If You Want To Make A Dope,
Teach Them To Merely Hope.
Shhh, Don't Tell Them About Startups,
Make Them Think They Are Only For Grownups.
And Finally,
Revolutionary Posters Are Not Art,
We Must Stop Them From Becoming Smart.
I am very sorry for the serious tone of some of these taglines,
but I want you to see that Art is a superpower.
I want you to witness, your posters, altering people,
inspiring them, helping them rise, snapping them out of their slumber.
In conclusion, to this imperfect list,
art shows are a very precious thing.
And they are meant to be protected,
never ever, ever, if you can help it, should you ever look back and say - last time I had an art show was 30 years ago.
You have to be MINDFUL,
that each art show must be followed by the next, and you have to keep that promise.
You Art Portfolio, will absolutely become a family heirloom,
certainly it will be a website, but perhaps it will be a book sold in stores, or a journal you are attached to as well.
In your lifetime, it MUST be a reminder to continue exhibiting new shows and ideas,
and beyond it will be a connection to who you were.
I write this in the 2020's by the 50's we may see the first cheap version of a global universal income program,
aimed at prevention of mass immigration, animal slaughter, destroying the remainder of the amazon forest.
And by the 90's we may actually have a prevention program,
that is worthy of Humanity, that will be enough for us to take to real education.
If you make your art hint on School Improvements, And Real Education,
Authenticity And Honesty especially in Politics...
And about the thing that actually solves Climate Change and Loss Of Species,
the Universal Income Card that helps people retain their Dignity and Health,
and creates room for their natural yearning
of Knowledge and Wisdom...
You will be remembered with smiles, and admiration,
with appreciation.
And a hundred years from now,
people will still look back at you, and wish they could talk to you, and be your friend, and be around you.
That is what all art is for, no matter what type,
art is for creating a bookmark in the History of Human Kind.
A bookmark that curious people can turn to,
and entertain their curiosities whilst conjuring up your spirit sometimes across centuries.
Humanity will be around for a long time,
and people will be fascinated with 2000's there will be many-a-meme from the stuff we uploaded.
I am certain that Pop Surrealism, propaganda posters included,
will become the biggest thing since the Renascence.