DISCRIMINATE
Coming 2nd December 2023 at the Belco Arts Centre, Window Gallery
DISCRIMINATE takes a confronting and satirical look at how modern-day media depicts people with disabilities and in doing so, often inadvertently, reinforces limiting preconceptions of the sector by the wider public. It will do this by marrying recent research with the style of Propaganda posters of World War 2, Maoist China, the Cold War etc to explore broad perceptions of people with disabilities as ‘victims’, ‘heroes ‘and ‘villains ‘.
This format will explore contemporary perceptions – disability as “victim” [perception of weakness, needing extra support], “hero” [idealises all disabled people as inspirational, hero status often through conforming to normal society, one-sided portrayal of majority of average disabled person], “villain” [demonising of those with mental health issues by the media in coverage of mass shootings etc, movie portraits of villains in mental health terms – “The Joker”]
Ultimately the proposal is to question mainstream media portrayals and to encourage people – disabled or not – to look beyond the popular messages and to be more ‘discriminating’ in their outlook as opposed to ‘discriminatory.’
DISCRIMINATE takes a confronting and satirical look at how modern-day media depicts people with disabilities and in doing so, often inadvertently, reinforces limiting preconceptions of the sector by the wider public. It will do this by marrying recent research with the style of Propaganda posters of World War 2, Maoist China, the Cold War etc to explore broad perceptions of people with disabilities as ‘victims’, ‘heroes ‘and ‘villains ‘.
This will be achieved through exploring of these notions by using the style and design of Propaganda posters widely used in the two World Wars, Maoist China, the Cold War etc.
This format will explore contemporary perceptions – disability as “victim” [perception of weakness, needing extra support], “hero” [idealises all disabled people as inspirational, hero status often through conforming to normal society, one-sided portrayal of majority of average disabled person], “villain” [demonising of those with mental health issues by the media in coverage of mass shootings etc, movie portraits of villains in mental health terms – “The Joker”]
Ultimately the proposal is to question mainstream media portrayals and to encourage people – disabled or not – to look beyond the popular messages and to be more ‘discriminating’ in their outlook as opposed to ‘discriminatory.’
This format will explore contemporary perceptions – disability as “victim” [perception of weakness, needing extra support], “hero” [idealises all disabled people as inspirational, hero status often through conforming to normal society, one-sided portrayal of majority of average disabled person], “villain” [demonising of those with mental health issues by the media in coverage of mass shootings etc, movie portraits of villains in mental health terms – “The Joker”]
Ultimately the proposal is to question mainstream media portrayals and to encourage people – disabled or not – to look beyond the popular messages and to be more ‘discriminating’ in their outlook as opposed to ‘discriminatory.’
DISCRIMINATE takes a confronting and satirical look at how modern-day media depicts people with disabilities and in doing so, often inadvertently, reinforces limiting preconceptions of the sector by the wider public. It will do this by marrying recent research with the style of Propaganda posters of World War 2, Maoist China, the Cold War etc to explore broad perceptions of people with disabilities as ‘victims’, ‘heroes ‘and ‘villains ‘.
This will be achieved through exploring of these notions by using the style and design of Propaganda posters widely used in the two World Wars, Maoist China, the Cold War etc.
This format will explore contemporary perceptions – disability as “victim” [perception of weakness, needing extra support], “hero” [idealises all disabled people as inspirational, hero status often through conforming to normal society, one-sided portrayal of majority of average disabled person], “villain” [demonising of those with mental health issues by the media in coverage of mass shootings etc, movie portraits of villains in mental health terms – “The Joker”]
Ultimately the proposal is to question mainstream media portrayals and to encourage people – disabled or not – to look beyond the popular messages and to be more ‘discriminating’ in their outlook as opposed to ‘discriminatory.’
