summer project
before the course kicked in, we were set two briefs to complete over the summer. the first being to write a short article based on the question 'are tools and toys or film and television new media's closest living relations?', and the second was to produce three postcards inspired by our adventures over the holidays.
my article is intended for publication on the technology section of the bbc's news website, and a copy along with a critique can be downloaded in pdf format from here.
following my travels through cambodia in august, i decided that i wanted to use some of the photographs which i took for the postcards. i wanted the three to be connected with a common theme, and chose the ‘tuol sleng’ series as i found the place deeply profound. tuol sleng is a former cambodia school, in the capital of phnom penh. it was converted into an interrogation and death camp by the khmer rouge “government”, and since cambodia’s recovery just a few decades ago, has been converted into a genocide museum and national memorial.
the khmer rouge, or ‘red khmer’, was a communist regime that arose during the cold war, at the same time as neighbouring vietnam was deeply buried in conflict. they believed in a classless, aggregarian society, where all were required to til the land, and took control of the capital city in 1975. the khmer rouge regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, through execution, starvation and forced labour. it was one of the most violent regimes of the 20th century, often compared with the regimes of hitler, stalin and mao tse tong. in terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled and time in power, it was probably the most lethal regime of the 20th century.
i wanted the words on the rear of the postcards to tell a story, but one which is merely stating facts and not revealing the whole picture. i wanted the photographs to then show the reality of the subject matter.
my article is intended for publication on the technology section of the bbc's news website, and a copy along with a critique can be downloaded in pdf format from here.
following my travels through cambodia in august, i decided that i wanted to use some of the photographs which i took for the postcards. i wanted the three to be connected with a common theme, and chose the ‘tuol sleng’ series as i found the place deeply profound. tuol sleng is a former cambodia school, in the capital of phnom penh. it was converted into an interrogation and death camp by the khmer rouge “government”, and since cambodia’s recovery just a few decades ago, has been converted into a genocide museum and national memorial.
the khmer rouge, or ‘red khmer’, was a communist regime that arose during the cold war, at the same time as neighbouring vietnam was deeply buried in conflict. they believed in a classless, aggregarian society, where all were required to til the land, and took control of the capital city in 1975. the khmer rouge regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, through execution, starvation and forced labour. it was one of the most violent regimes of the 20th century, often compared with the regimes of hitler, stalin and mao tse tong. in terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled and time in power, it was probably the most lethal regime of the 20th century.
i wanted the words on the rear of the postcards to tell a story, but one which is merely stating facts and not revealing the whole picture. i wanted the photographs to then show the reality of the subject matter.
- postcard 1 | tuolsleng – verbal communication
- postcard 2 | internment – symbolic communication
- postcard 3 | torture – visual communication
posted by James at 8:54 pm
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