OUGD505 - Product, Range & Distribution Initial Research

Examine graphic design outputs relating to social, political and ethical change.

Aim to increase your awareness of historical examples plus contemporary practice that is responsive to 21st Century issues.

Be sure to note the relationship between medium and message.

You should then produce a body of research work that explores the connections between these concepts and their respective design outcomes prior to your own practical and conceptual exploration of possible products, ranges and methods of distribution that may be suggested by your preferred content or, indeed, those that reflect your own ideologies, concerns and/or ambitions.

Terrorism 

Charlie Hebdo (French for Charlie Weekly) is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Irreverent and stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication describes itself as above all secular and atheist, far-left-wing, and anti-racist.

On 7 January 2015, two Islamist gunmen forced their way into and opened fire in the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, killing twelve and wounding eleven, four of them seriously.

The shootings triggered a response first on twitter of the words 'Je suis Charlie' and was adopted by supporters of free speech and freedom of expression. This is a recent example of how a tragedy can spark a positive campaign where design is at the forefront of linking it together through the campaigning posters and illustrations that followed.    

Following European rallies in support of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after the terrorist attack on its Paris offices, tens of thousands of residents of Russia's mostly Muslim Chechen Republic came out for a government-backed protest on Monday against the "immorality" of the French cartoonists.

The anti-"Je suis Charlie" demonstration was called last week by Chechnya's strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov on his popular Instagram account. Kadyrov declared he would mobilize half a million of his denizens against the magazine's Muhammad caricatures and called its supporters his "personal enemies."

According to Chechnya's interior ministry, more than 1 million people came to the capital Grozny's central square to take part in the protest. Although official counts of state-backed rallies are often inflated, video from the scene showed tens of thousands of people marching and singing near the Heart of Chechnya mosque.

Police Brutality

Michael Brown 

'Witnesses have said that Brown was shot dead while fleeing a confrontation with Wilson after the officer asked him and a friend to move from the middle of the road to the pavement. Police contend that Brown assaulted Wilson, who received swelling to one side of his face and was treated in hospital. St Louis County police and prosecutors are investigating the shooting. ' - Guardian

'While the crowds protesting in Ferguson have been predominantly African American, all but one of the demonstrators showing their support for Wilson were white. A stack of dark blue T-shirts, on sale for $7 and bearing a police-style badge stating: “Officer Darren Wilson – I stand by you,” quickly sold out.' - Guardian

The shooting set off 168 days of continuous protests in Ferguson and nationwide.

Wilson hasn't faced charges for the shooting despite the protests however the case its still being fought for. It seems from some of the news reports that this is an issue of race as the the protests supporting Wilson were made up of and all white crowd.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/14/detroit-police-officer-retrial-killing-girl-7-raid

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/18/ferguson-supporters-police-killed-teenager-protest

Eric Garner

After Garner expressed to the police that he was tired of being harassed and that he was not selling cigarettes, officers moved to arrest Garner on suspicion of selling "loosies" (single cigarettes) from packs without tax stamps. Pantaleo then put his arm around Garner's neck and pulled him backwards and down onto the ground. After Pantaleo removed his arm from Garner's neck, he pushed Garner's head into the ground while four officers moved to restrain Garner, who repeated "I can't breathe" eleven times while lying facedown on the sidewalk. Garner remained lying on the sidewalk for seven minutes while the officers waited for an ambulance to arrive. (Wikipedia)

On December 3, 2014, a grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo. The event stirred public protests and rallies with charges of police brutality. (Wikipedia)



Efforts to curb police brutality 'met with more force’ – pepper-sprayed teacher

Jesse Hagopian, a high school history teacher who was pepper-sprayed by a police officer in an unprovoked attack, says that what happened to him is reflective of the police brutality that is rampant across the United States. 

Hagopian – an activist promoting black causes in the Seattle area – was pepper-sprayed by a police officer after speaking at a Black Lives Matter rally on Martin Luther King Day. He was walking away from the gathering, on a sidewalk, when he was suddenly pepper-sprayed in the face.

http://rt.com/usa/228271-pepper-spray-police-brutality/

Akai Gurley

Two rookie police officers assigned to the NYCHA Louis H. Pink Houses were conducting a vertical patrol, in which officers patrol a public housing complex from the roof to the ground floor, stopping on each floor to see if there's any crime underway.

Officer Shaun Landau and Officer Peter Liang, were walking down a darkened stairwell with no lights – Officer Liang carrying a flashlight in one hand and his gun drawn with the other. The 28-year-old unarmed Akai Gurley was visiting his girlfriend and getting his hair braided before Thanksgiving. He entered the stairwell about one floor below Officer Liang. Liang was allegedly startled and fired a single shot. He hit Gurley right in the chest who later died

Understanding the deep roots of racism - Where do we stand after Ferguson and Eric Garner?
I recently read a post in Huck magazine which attempts to uncover why there is still racial tension in America and why these shootings are continuing to happen.

'Police violence towards people of colour is just one manifestation of institutional racism, which has been at the heart of the American system since the country’s earliest days. “For over half of the US’s 408 years of existence we had slavery as our foundational economic and political system,” he explains. “This country did not even become an officially free country until 1969. So only for forty-six years have we been close, officially, to liberty and justice for all – to freedom. Essentially for about eighty-three per cent of our history we had a totalitarian system for the people of colour – for blacks, Native Americans, indigenous peoples, Asian-Americans, Latinos. So these recent events have to be set in the context of a foundational, fundamental, extensive, systemic racism.” - Joe Feagin, Huck Magazine

http://www.huckmagazine.com/perspectives/reportage-2/understanding-deep-roots-racism/