Visual Culture #16

Yeah I missed out week 15 since I was in Whitby for that lecture.

This week we looked at Nazi Germany (fun) and Great Britain (1930-45). I learnt most of the history in GCSE so I was already familiar with the topic but I did learn a few useful and more in depth details about their propaganda.

Art and visual culture was constantly under scrutiny under the Third Reich. The swastika was originally a logo for good luck but they adopted it (people were also abandoning Christianity from WW1 so they now looked towards luck). It was also effective as it is easy to recognise. Show it to anyone today and they will automatically know the meaning behind it and associate it with the Nazi party.

http://scraap.tumblr.com/page/10

The heroic worker and the perfect German body were also celebrated and were in various propaganda posters. The cult of celebrity was also strong with the rise of Hitler and his powerful orator skills and speeches. The cult of youth were also celebrated, with a focus on the Aryan race and 'purity'. I also learnt about propaganda of the negro where they were presented as canon fodder, being pushed to the front line, or illiterate and inferior. There is similar propaganda today with the rise of ISIS.

Film production were very much patriotic, with films mirroring each year/phase of the war- starting out as hopeful, then boosting moral saying we will get through it in the end, then celebrating the country saying how amazing we are. Production was very much patriotic. 

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-is-loki's

In Di's session we looked at our progress so far with our journals and essays. Mine, I needed a bit more in my journal entries ("but don't kill yourself", in the words of Di) such as talk about different religions and the use of film stock in my digital entry. Also try and find a few new films I haven't put on the forum before. This might be difficult with such short notice, but it's worth a look.