In the words of Rob Walker from the New York Times, “Whether or not Barack Obama would make a good president, it’s clear that he makes an excellent muse.” This is made evident if one simply types in “Obama and art” in a google search. What one would be faced with after pressing enter, is a list of 102 000 000 search results. It is this relationship between the artworks which arose around Obama’s campaign and the influence of Web 2.0 that this essay will primarily be dealing with. The three blogs which this essay will use in order to discuss this differ in content in that they each deal with different issues surrounding the images and imagery of Obama which were made ubiquitous mainly through the use of Web 2.0.
One of the most prevalent and controversial “Obama artworks” was the “HOPE” poster, created by street artist Shepard Fairey which was released around the period of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Despite the controversy surrounding Fairey and the authorship of this particular work, the image is one of the most famous of the many, many artworks which came about in the period. This fame is not only a result of notoriety either – sites such as http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/ allow one to transform photo’s of oneself into an image stylistically similar to Fairey’s iconic poster. It is popular reproductions like this which the first website this essay will focus on, used as a springboard for further discussion.
The South African website, http://www.mahala.co.za/, described as “a free South African mouthpiece,” makes use of Web 2.0 functionality in that the site encourages contribution and sharing of opinion. This is made possible through the “Kiff or Kak” voting option, as well as the option of leaving a comment after each post. The site also features links to recommend the posts on StumbleUpon or to allow you to share the posts with your friends on Facebook. On this website, Sean O’Toole wrote an entry titled, The Audacity of Everything which was inspired by a poster advertising a gig by veteran punk rock vocalist Jello Biafra. The poster was stylistically the same as Fairey’s “HOPE” poster (the reference to Obama was made even more obvious with the replacement of the word “HOPE” with “The Audacity of Hype”). In this article, O’Toole attributes the success of Fairey’s poster to its use of the polarized image, a graphic device which alludes not only to artist Andy Warhol, but also to political graphics such as the famous image depicting Che Guevara, or even anti-apartheid posters. For this reason, he describes Fairey’s work as “uncomplicated, arguably even formulaic.” He also makes the suggestion that the message paired with the image borders on propaganda.
The debate around whether some representations of Obama are propagandistic is elaborated in the second article this essay will deal with. This blog post by Chicago-based Warner Todd Huston, can be found on the NewsBusters site and is titled Obama’s Propagandistic Iconography: the Making of a Messiah. In this post, Hudson questions the American media’s unquestioning compliance when it comes to images of Obama in a style so similar to both religious iconography and old style propaganda. These similarities are highlighted in this blog, through the juxtaposition of “Obama art” and photographs with Communist propaganda posters, as well as the through the inclusion of magazine covers which evoke religious representations in what Hudson describes as a photographic essay.
This blog post is similar to the Mahala article in that it too made full use of Web 2.0 functionality. At the bottom of the article, one could recommend the article to sites including Digg.com, Fark.com, Reddit.com, Netscape.com and Tailrank.com. One is also given the option to share the story with one’s Facebook friends, “sphere” the article, post the article on StumbleUpon, add to “Delicious bookmarks” or find related posts on Technorati.com. Below all of these icons, one can also choose to “Take action”, receive “Free email alerts”, or “Read comments”. The post is also presented alongside video clips, links to join on Facebook, Twitter and amazonkindle. There are also links to vote on polls, and other links to comments, other blogs, and to other contributors.
The tone of this blog differs greatly in comparison to the Mahala article. It is more serious, political and persuasive. This contrast is evident even if one clicks on the link which tells one about the website. Whilst NewsBusters is described as “a project of the Media Research Centre (MRC), the leader in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias”, the Mahala site states its intention to “report and represent what’s really happening along the fault line and in the trenches of South African culture”. The tone of the articles, therefore reflect the interests and intentions of the sites. If one compares Mahala’s “Kiff or Kak” poll to the “Take action” link on the NewsBusters article, this contrast is made even more distinct. The different tones of the articles are evident not only in the actual text, but also in the layouts of the sites in general. Whereas the Mahala site is fun, colourful and trendy, the NewsBusters site is more formal in appearance. The Tunisian blog this essay will next deal with, cannot really be compared to these previously mentioned websites in terms of style and tone of writing due to the fact that the posts were written in French. Although Google Translate allows for the blog to be translated into English, the translation is still fairly rough. What this illustrates, however, is one of the numerous possibilities Web 2.0 allows.
Tunisian Mehdi Lamloum’s blog, Pink Lemon, deals with the frenzy of “Obama art” in relation to Obama’s campaign, but more specifically how Obama’s campaign was strengthened through his adoption of Web 2.0 strategies. The latest entry with the label Barack Obama, was a post promoting a video which one can view below the entry, titled Designing Obama. This video chronicles the artwork created during the campaign – in Lamloum’s words, the video gives the “inside story on how design was used by the campaign” and also includes works “created unofficially, by grassroots supporters”.
Other posts on this blog deal more specifically with the role of the Web in relation to Obama’s campaign. Lamloum highlights the various platforms which were used for campaigning - these included an official site, Change.gov, You Tube, Yahoo, MSN, a Twitter account, a Facebook fanpage, a Myspace page, a Flickr account, and even a profile on Linkedin professional. Lamloum also highlights that other sites were born in support of Obama, without having a direct relationship with the campaigning committee- these included sites such as franceforbarackobamablog.com, youbama.com, ohboyobama.com, along with many others. With such a multitude of platforms from which to rally support, Obama’s use of Web 2.0 was firstly, undoubtedly a major factor in his presidential victory, but also has made his image ubiquitous on the Web.
Unlike the first two blogs this essay focused on, this is a personal blog. There are links to Lanloum’s Facebook page, his twitter page and to his video blog work. One can also become a fan of this site on Facebook from this page. The blog also includes pictures, videos and slideshows. It is helpful in that it, unlike the other two, has labels which accompany the entries, making it much easier to search for relevant posts. Like the Mahala site, and the NewsBusters blog, the Pink Lemon blog has links below each post which give one the option to bookmark, email or IM the post, or to share the post with one’s own blog or social networking site. One is also allowed to comment on the posts.
Although these three sources seem to differ quite greatly in content, what they all illustrate is the power of Web 2.0 in broadly disseminating information and imagery. They also show how Web 2.0 allows for a space of freedom of expression and for generating ideas. The Mahala site highlights how the internet has enabled easier access to images, by referring to the reference photograph used by Fairey for his “HOPE” poster, as well by including the Biafra poster, only one of a multitude of altered reproductions based on Fairey’s design, made available to all by sites such as http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/. The NewsBuster blog post illustrates to all the power of the web in creating a platform for freedom of expression and a forum for debate, as much as it also allows for one’s personal views to be disseminated. The Pink Lemon blog, which doesn’t convey as much personal opinion as the two previously mentioned blogs, assists one in understanding the influence of Web 2.0 as a marketing tool, both in advertising the Designing Obama book, but also in outlining how Obama’s campaign team made full use of the possibilities of Web 2.0 to gain him the support he needed to win the presidential election. As artists, what seems most relevant here, is for us to recognize the endless possibilities and opportunities available to us through using Web 2.0. It is because of these possibilities that images of Obama, and probably most notably Fairey’s artwork, have become such iconic images. This should give us “HOPE”.
One of the most prevalent and controversial “Obama artworks” was the “HOPE” poster, created by street artist Shepard Fairey which was released around the period of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Despite the controversy surrounding Fairey and the authorship of this particular work, the image is one of the most famous of the many, many artworks which came about in the period. This fame is not only a result of notoriety either – sites such as http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/ allow one to transform photo’s of oneself into an image stylistically similar to Fairey’s iconic poster. It is popular reproductions like this which the first website this essay will focus on, used as a springboard for further discussion.
The South African website, http://www.mahala.co.za/, described as “a free South African mouthpiece,” makes use of Web 2.0 functionality in that the site encourages contribution and sharing of opinion. This is made possible through the “Kiff or Kak” voting option, as well as the option of leaving a comment after each post. The site also features links to recommend the posts on StumbleUpon or to allow you to share the posts with your friends on Facebook. On this website, Sean O’Toole wrote an entry titled, The Audacity of Everything which was inspired by a poster advertising a gig by veteran punk rock vocalist Jello Biafra. The poster was stylistically the same as Fairey’s “HOPE” poster (the reference to Obama was made even more obvious with the replacement of the word “HOPE” with “The Audacity of Hype”). In this article, O’Toole attributes the success of Fairey’s poster to its use of the polarized image, a graphic device which alludes not only to artist Andy Warhol, but also to political graphics such as the famous image depicting Che Guevara, or even anti-apartheid posters. For this reason, he describes Fairey’s work as “uncomplicated, arguably even formulaic.” He also makes the suggestion that the message paired with the image borders on propaganda.
The debate around whether some representations of Obama are propagandistic is elaborated in the second article this essay will deal with. This blog post by Chicago-based Warner Todd Huston, can be found on the NewsBusters site and is titled Obama’s Propagandistic Iconography: the Making of a Messiah. In this post, Hudson questions the American media’s unquestioning compliance when it comes to images of Obama in a style so similar to both religious iconography and old style propaganda. These similarities are highlighted in this blog, through the juxtaposition of “Obama art” and photographs with Communist propaganda posters, as well as the through the inclusion of magazine covers which evoke religious representations in what Hudson describes as a photographic essay.
This blog post is similar to the Mahala article in that it too made full use of Web 2.0 functionality. At the bottom of the article, one could recommend the article to sites including Digg.com, Fark.com, Reddit.com, Netscape.com and Tailrank.com. One is also given the option to share the story with one’s Facebook friends, “sphere” the article, post the article on StumbleUpon, add to “Delicious bookmarks” or find related posts on Technorati.com. Below all of these icons, one can also choose to “Take action”, receive “Free email alerts”, or “Read comments”. The post is also presented alongside video clips, links to join on Facebook, Twitter and amazonkindle. There are also links to vote on polls, and other links to comments, other blogs, and to other contributors.
The tone of this blog differs greatly in comparison to the Mahala article. It is more serious, political and persuasive. This contrast is evident even if one clicks on the link which tells one about the website. Whilst NewsBusters is described as “a project of the Media Research Centre (MRC), the leader in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias”, the Mahala site states its intention to “report and represent what’s really happening along the fault line and in the trenches of South African culture”. The tone of the articles, therefore reflect the interests and intentions of the sites. If one compares Mahala’s “Kiff or Kak” poll to the “Take action” link on the NewsBusters article, this contrast is made even more distinct. The different tones of the articles are evident not only in the actual text, but also in the layouts of the sites in general. Whereas the Mahala site is fun, colourful and trendy, the NewsBusters site is more formal in appearance. The Tunisian blog this essay will next deal with, cannot really be compared to these previously mentioned websites in terms of style and tone of writing due to the fact that the posts were written in French. Although Google Translate allows for the blog to be translated into English, the translation is still fairly rough. What this illustrates, however, is one of the numerous possibilities Web 2.0 allows.
Tunisian Mehdi Lamloum’s blog, Pink Lemon, deals with the frenzy of “Obama art” in relation to Obama’s campaign, but more specifically how Obama’s campaign was strengthened through his adoption of Web 2.0 strategies. The latest entry with the label Barack Obama, was a post promoting a video which one can view below the entry, titled Designing Obama. This video chronicles the artwork created during the campaign – in Lamloum’s words, the video gives the “inside story on how design was used by the campaign” and also includes works “created unofficially, by grassroots supporters”.
Other posts on this blog deal more specifically with the role of the Web in relation to Obama’s campaign. Lamloum highlights the various platforms which were used for campaigning - these included an official site, Change.gov, You Tube, Yahoo, MSN, a Twitter account, a Facebook fanpage, a Myspace page, a Flickr account, and even a profile on Linkedin professional. Lamloum also highlights that other sites were born in support of Obama, without having a direct relationship with the campaigning committee- these included sites such as franceforbarackobamablog.com, youbama.com, ohboyobama.com, along with many others. With such a multitude of platforms from which to rally support, Obama’s use of Web 2.0 was firstly, undoubtedly a major factor in his presidential victory, but also has made his image ubiquitous on the Web.
Unlike the first two blogs this essay focused on, this is a personal blog. There are links to Lanloum’s Facebook page, his twitter page and to his video blog work. One can also become a fan of this site on Facebook from this page. The blog also includes pictures, videos and slideshows. It is helpful in that it, unlike the other two, has labels which accompany the entries, making it much easier to search for relevant posts. Like the Mahala site, and the NewsBusters blog, the Pink Lemon blog has links below each post which give one the option to bookmark, email or IM the post, or to share the post with one’s own blog or social networking site. One is also allowed to comment on the posts.
Although these three sources seem to differ quite greatly in content, what they all illustrate is the power of Web 2.0 in broadly disseminating information and imagery. They also show how Web 2.0 allows for a space of freedom of expression and for generating ideas. The Mahala site highlights how the internet has enabled easier access to images, by referring to the reference photograph used by Fairey for his “HOPE” poster, as well by including the Biafra poster, only one of a multitude of altered reproductions based on Fairey’s design, made available to all by sites such as http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/. The NewsBuster blog post illustrates to all the power of the web in creating a platform for freedom of expression and a forum for debate, as much as it also allows for one’s personal views to be disseminated. The Pink Lemon blog, which doesn’t convey as much personal opinion as the two previously mentioned blogs, assists one in understanding the influence of Web 2.0 as a marketing tool, both in advertising the Designing Obama book, but also in outlining how Obama’s campaign team made full use of the possibilities of Web 2.0 to gain him the support he needed to win the presidential election. As artists, what seems most relevant here, is for us to recognize the endless possibilities and opportunities available to us through using Web 2.0. It is because of these possibilities that images of Obama, and probably most notably Fairey’s artwork, have become such iconic images. This should give us “HOPE”.
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