Orators, Rostrums, and Propaganda Stands 

John Craig Freeman
http://johncraigfreeman.net

http://johncraigfreeman.wordpress.com/orators/

 

DESCRIPTION:

Orators, Rostrums, and Propaganda Stands, is based of the work of Russian Constructivist Gustav Gustavovich Klucis, including his designs for Screen-radio Orators, Rostrums, and Propaganda Stands from 1922. Each of four virtual objects display an animation from a contemporary mass uprising; Tank Man near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989; the assassination of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was gunned down in the streets of Tehran during the 2009 Iranian election protests; scenes from Tahrir Square in Cairo during the 2011 Arab Spring; and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street uprising. Each of these images are juxtaposed, in montage, with frames from the Odessa Steps scene of Sergei Eisenstein‘s historic Battleship Potemkin film. When touched, the virtual objects play sound from the uprising. The stands call up both the resurgence and nostalgia of current worldwide political idealism as they re-imagine the function of the public square.

KEY WORDS: orators, freeman