Quakers in action - damn they're good.
The AFSC’s (Quaker pacifist action group) anti-Iraq war site is tight; each word is carefully chosen, each design element intricately crafted to support their rhetorical goals/strategies. Gonna have to work it into my project, I'm just scratching surface here. Rates low on the accessibility scale, since I couldn’t get any of the audio-only links to work and I'd still need to see to find them. This is pretty focused/detailed, click on the link & watch the "movie" (left side nav bar) for more context. (hmm...Tiny font excuses 3rd paragraph?)
Wage Peace Campaign
“Not one more death. Not one more dollar.” The sentences are stacked, visually reinforcing the parallel structure and alliteration. The words become an image through font choice, bold face (as above) and their location/structure. Visually and verbally they reinforce the site’s purpose: to prompt visitors to actively support an end to US involvement in Iraq by illustrating the human and monetary cost of the war. They're appealling to American emotion and capitalism– two things we have in sometimes sickening abundance.
The "Wage Peace Movie" (Flash) uses audio, photos and limited verbal text to support the metaphor in the site’s title, “Wage Peace Campaign.” This is pacifism in military language. Both the verbal text of the title and the Flash file re-appropriate the ideas of duty and patriotism from their typical use in military propaganda, to become weapons for peace. The flash presentation works much like posters of Belgian children did in WWII. Photos fade in and out slowly, allowing lots of time for reflection. They begin with empty pairs of combat boots (each represents a US casualty), US and Iraqi gravesites and mourners, and end with a picture of a candle-light vigil. For each photo one of two women reads the name and age of one of the dead. This continues until both women are speaking simultaneously, while verbal text (lists of the names and ages of the dead) fill the window. After a pause the group’s argument is shown in clear, direct, and fascinatingly concise verbal text. Conclusion: tight.
Wage Peace Campaign
“Not one more death. Not one more dollar.” The sentences are stacked, visually reinforcing the parallel structure and alliteration. The words become an image through font choice, bold face (as above) and their location/structure. Visually and verbally they reinforce the site’s purpose: to prompt visitors to actively support an end to US involvement in Iraq by illustrating the human and monetary cost of the war. They're appealling to American emotion and capitalism– two things we have in sometimes sickening abundance.
The "Wage Peace Movie" (Flash) uses audio, photos and limited verbal text to support the metaphor in the site’s title, “Wage Peace Campaign.” This is pacifism in military language. Both the verbal text of the title and the Flash file re-appropriate the ideas of duty and patriotism from their typical use in military propaganda, to become weapons for peace. The flash presentation works much like posters of Belgian children did in WWII. Photos fade in and out slowly, allowing lots of time for reflection. They begin with empty pairs of combat boots (each represents a US casualty), US and Iraqi gravesites and mourners, and end with a picture of a candle-light vigil. For each photo one of two women reads the name and age of one of the dead. This continues until both women are speaking simultaneously, while verbal text (lists of the names and ages of the dead) fill the window. After a pause the group’s argument is shown in clear, direct, and fascinatingly concise verbal text. Conclusion: tight.
posted by jonelle at 1:26 AM
1 Comments:
Your analysis of the AFSC's anti-war campaign site is concise and insightful.
The idea that the site appeals to both emotion (pathos) and capitalism (a kind of logos) seems right on target. You're right: the positioning of the text for the two phrases "not one more death" / "not one more dollar" reinforces the link between economic commitment to the war (both the direct spending on the war effort and the economic factors driving U.S. interest in the Middle East).
"Pacifism in military language" is a great way to encapsulate the way the Friends appropriate the language of warfare--the verb "wage"--for their own message.
The film is an excellent example of multimodality: the images, voices, and text come together to make a simple but--for me, at least--compelling statement about how both sides of this war are suffering terrible losses. It's good that you pay attention to the pacing of the "visual argument" the Flash film is presenting: the superimposition of images and text in the end reinforces the "connections" between the U.S. and Iraqi deaths. The juxtaposition of the ages of the dead--within the range of typical combatants for the U.S.; across the board for the Iraqis--is also quite effective, I think. It's simple statistical data that carries a heavy punch when it's designed in this way. The site's message here is in keeping with the overall mission of the Quakers, who have always advocated peaceful solutions to conflicts.
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