Resistance: revealing and exposing the constructions of societal control

This practice based visual arts investigation was triggered by the researcher’s social understandings and personal concern about societal control on the individual, and his resistance to the negative effects of consumerism and capitalism. Through this research project he aims to reveal and expose the workings of those systems of control visually. He pays particular attention to our current global, cultural and socio-political, economic order and the limitations that are imposed on the individual in terms of freedom of choice and expression, and through both the written work and the practical work he aims to influence a revolution of the mind and to encourage critical consciousness and awareness on the part of its audience regarding how individuals are manipulated, distracted and seduced into conformity. As an outcome of his research, and of his intention to act as an agent for socially aware creative practice, he presents a tentative framework for the use of emerging, socially conscious artists and educators. The practical component of this study is focused around the creation and display of graffiti-influenced images in both public and gallery spaces. The researcher makes extensive use of the SI’s subversive artistic technique of Détournement as he engages with the notion of ‘distraction’. This project, with its dual focus on text and on the creation of artworks in both public and gallery spaces, is intended as a contribution to the search for new critical understandings and diagnostic terminologies around social control