TYPE: 1st Yr Media Studies
LOCATION: Cuba & United Kingdom
DATE: 28th September 2023 - 6th January 2024
METHODOLOGY:
- Screen Printing
- Film
- Photography
EQUIPMENT & SOFTWARE:
- Printing Screen
- Hydrochromic Ink
- Canon R6
- Tripod
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Water
Using Cuba as an entry point into ideas of censorship and protest this project will be focused on the ideas of ‘disguise’ and ‘invisibility’, and how physical printed media can appear not as it seems, revealing hidden agendas, that if needed can elude the authorities. I will be using hydrochromic ink to create a deployable media object that can invert on itself revealed contrasted information to provide an individual with the relevant information to be prepared in a protest in the event of a violent outbreak.
Both water and heat have their places within protests, especially violent protests where fire is present in the forms of Molotov cocktails and burning vehicles; water on the other hand can be present in the form of water-cannons, fire hoses or simply as rain. I have chosen hydrochromic ink over thermochromic ink due to the timescale that the information is revealed; hydrochromic only goes back to its original state once the material its printed on has dried out, whereas heat is something that can change very quickly in relation to its context.
Both water and heat have their places within protests, especially violent protests where fire is present in the forms of Molotov cocktails and burning vehicles; water on the other hand can be present in the form of water-cannons, fire hoses or simply as rain. I have chosen hydrochromic ink over thermochromic ink due to the timescale that the information is revealed; hydrochromic only goes back to its original state once the material its printed on has dried out, whereas heat is something that can change very quickly in relation to its context.
how to defend.
EXPLORING HOW TO STAY SAFE IN A PROTEST
In today’s world having control over means of communication and artistic expression is a form of power or in extreme cases censorship and oppression. Methodologies can differ in severity based on agendas, actors, and contexts, but having the power to rewrite, manipulate or completely control expression is a powerful position to influence ideas, opinions, social movements, or political campaigns.
Following a three week long visit to Cuba this January, I was exposed to the political environment, economic conditions, and social censorship under the Communist Party of Cuba. Younger people that I met, didn’t agree with the system or the way of life they are forced to live, specifically highlighting the difficulties with migration, communication and censorship in relation to other countries in the world. These are all border conditions created by the state over time to further internalize the country and prevent future uprisings, as seen from the
results of the 2021 protests in Havana.
Specifically, I researched Decree 349, a law passed in Cuba in 2018 which requires all artists to obtain advance permission for public and private exhibitions, installations, and performances. As a result, any art form that contains any ‘national symbols with the intention to contradict current legislation or disrupt governmental processes gets censored at the first hurdle’.
how to attack.
HOW TO BE ON THE OFFENSIVE
THE OBJECT
1. THE DISGUISE - To the naked eye the media object will be a A5 ‘How to Manual’ with four sections of ‘defence’ in a protest, providing the user with information on advice and guidance on how to create and organize an event, peacefully protest or a collective discussion, that in the event of a stop and search wouldn’t be something that would raise an alarm or be confiscated.
1. THE DISGUISE - To the naked eye the media object will be a A5 ‘How to Manual’ with four sections of ‘defence’ in a protest, providing the user with information on advice and guidance on how to create and organize an event, peacefully protest or a collective discussion, that in the event of a stop and search wouldn’t be something that would raise an alarm or be confiscated.
2. THE REVEAL – once inverted and revealed by a bottle of water or by a police water-cannon, this part of the media object will show four methods of ‘attack’ in a protest: how to put out a tear gas grenade, take down a drone, make a Molotov cocktail and how to make a riot shield.
The media object is creating a typology/ a tool of protest that empowers protesters with a guidebook on how to protect themselves from people or the police if a protest turns violent, the object will be mass produced and supplied to the relevant parties before a protest.
