Ontario College of Art & Design

Course Calendar

COURSE DESCRIPTION

VISD 3B35
The Writing on the Wall: Radical Graphics and the Culture of Protest
0.50 Credit(s)
Academic Course
Prerequisite: 7.5 credits, including 1.0 credit of second-year liberal studies (including 0.5 VISC credit).
This course examines the history of radical political movements and their graphic expression between the 18th century and the present, looking at the role of popular graphics (posters, pamphlets and magazines, graffiti, caricature, and graphic novels) in articulating political positions against the mainstream. We will consider a range of graphic work including 18th- and 19th-century revolutionary graphics and satirical prints; John Heartfield’s anti-Nazi photomontages of the 1930s; ‘third world’ anti-colonial graphics; Situationist graphics and May ‘68; anti-Vietnam war posters and underground ‘comix’; Canadian protest graphics (particularly in Québec); AIDS activist graphics (Gran Fury et al.); and contemporary anti-globalization graphics. We will consider the historical texts and contexts of these movements alongside their graphic strategies, and reflect on the broader relationship between graphics and politics in the modern era.
Anti-requisite: Students who have taken VISC 3B93 Special Topic in Visual Culture: The Writing on the Wall: Radical Graphics and the Culture or VISC 3B35 may not take this course for further credit.
Notes: Course code change 2011-12
Course was last updated May 3, 2011 - 4:43 PM