Hello 2018, hello same old blog. We are supposed to refer to this ‘blog’  as our “learning portfolio” but it really hasn’t caught on. Anyways, maybe that will be my new year’s resolution… Stop calling PLP flight and my learning portfolio my blog.

 

This portfolio post is highlighting and showcasing a mini project we did in class called the “Body Bio”.  My group members (Cashel, Jayden and Zak) and I have created a body cut out of paper with symbols on it and one animated element. We have done this because we are studying utopias and dystopias. One dystopia from the past and one dystopian from modern day. Our dystopia of the past is 1984 and our project related directly to the book. So to continue with the task, we were told to choose a character from 1984 and create an animated art piece that represents him. We chose Big Brother because he is a central character in George Orwell’s 1984 and has direct connections to the dystopia of the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SynDuDDGyA#action=share

I will explain our artistic decisions from the top down as you see in our video.

1) SECURITY CAMERA

The security camera held high by Big Bothers right arm represents surveillance and control. Within 1984 the slogan “Big Brother is watching you” becomes a staple of Big Brother and the dystopia he represents. The people who live in London are under complete surveillance by Big Brother and every word they say can be heard and seen by the telescreens which act as high tech surveillance cameras with displays built in. “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.” (Chapter 1) This quote tells us the true surveillance that Big Brother had on the Citizens of Oceana. As a group we believed an element of surveillance was necessary and so why not the object that watches us in the same style.

2) Hitler

As a group, we agreed quickly that the part of the bio-body we were to animate must be his head and that we must represent Big Brother with the head of a previous dictator or evil ruler. We agreed on Hitler because to us the oppressive nature of Big Brother and the oppressed society of Oceana strongly mirrors what Hitler did to Germany and the chaos he caused. Hitler visually represents Big Brother as they both have aggressive stares and moustaches that are essential to their persona. The Nazi regime also represents Big Brothers government as they both strive for power at the cost of the lives and quality of life of the people. As Big Brother represents the Government and is the true dystopia of the story we felt that we must represent that dystopia as strongly as possible, so we replaced the head and brain, the most important part of the human body. This long quote represents what I have written about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were- cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?” (Chapter 3, O’Brien)

3) THE SLOGANS

Upon our Bio Body, there are three tattoos that are the three slogans of Big Brothers political party. These three slogans:

WAR IS PEACE

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

represent the pure and true dystopian society that exists within 1984. The members of society are brainwashed to live in constant fear and to believe these manipulative and corrupted slogans. In chapter 8 Winston understands the brainwashed nature of the society “And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.” These slogans are so exactly the opposite of what a normal or even utopian society would value that the dystopian rule of Big Brother is truly seen.

4) MUSCLES

The muscles that cover our bio body’s body represent the power and strength of Big Brothers government. The power the government has is not a good power but regardless they are a strong entity striving for domination “But always – do not forget this, Winston – always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.” (Chapter 3, O’Brien)

5) BATTERIES

The battery belt that surrounds the waist of our bio-body represents the tech side of Big Brother and his rule. Big Brother is regularly seen through telescreens and never in person. The batteries represent the almost invisible yet always their aspect of Big Brother as he is a part of daily life through technology yet not in reality. The theme of wonder surrounding Big Brother and the questioning of his existence is why the batteries are important. The telescreens and their technical nature require power and that is what the batteries represent on a surface level while Winston and his conversations with O’Brien describe the deeper level of thought.

“Does Big Brother exist?’
‘Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party.’
‘Does he exist in the same way as I exist?’
‘You do not exist,’ said O’Brien.” (Chapter 2).

6) BOMBS

The bombs on both the left and right foot of our bio-body represent the constant fear the society of 1984 live in. Rockets fall in the streets killing civilians and fear is instilled in the hearts of the people. Although the source of the bombs is never directly told: “The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself….” (Chapter 5)

To conclude, these are the symbols drawn on our orange bio-body and these are the reasons why. Big Brother was our taget and we tried to represent him through differnt dystopic sumbols.