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Studio 04: Bullshit, propaganda and post-truth

Studio brief

“This is my truth, now show me yours” – (attributed to) Aneurin Bevan

In March 2017 three books were published on the same apparently new subject: d’Ancona, Ball (11 May 2017), and Davis (18 May 2017); the term ‘post truth’ seemed to have come from nowhere to being described as a new ‘mainstay in political commentary’ and announced as ‘word of the year’ by Oxford Dictionaries. Despite the apparent novelty of the term (which is defined in part as foregrounding emotion rather than rationality in public communication), it can be linked to other earlier critical perspectives on propaganda, often derived from wartime contexts, and the notion of bullshit discussed by Harry Frankfurt which emphasises the distinction between those with and without respect for the truth. These ideas can be applied and explored across a range of contexts in creative practice, and the studio will encourage students to consider them in relation to popular culture, political communications, film and media, promotions and marketing, art and design.

Bibliography 

  • Arendt H (1972) Crises of the Republic: Lying in Politics; Civil Disobedience; On Violence; Thoughts on Politics and Revolution. 1 edition. Mariner Books.
  • Ball J (2017) Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World. Biteback Publishing.
  • Beckett C (2017) ‘Post-truth’: a myth created by journalists? Polis. (Accessed 7 July 2017).
  • d’Ancona M (2017) Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back. 01 edition. Ebury Digital.
  • Davis C (2017) Post-Truth by Evan Davis; Post-Truth by Matthew d’Ancona; Post-Truth by James Ball. (Accessed 7 July 2017).
  • Davis E (2017) Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It. Little, Brown Book Group.
  • Frankfurt HG (2005) On Bullshit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • John Corner (2017) Fake news, post-truth and media–political change. Media, Culture & Society 39(7): 1100–1107.
  • Jowett G and O’Donnell V (2015) Propaganda & Persuasion. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
  • McIntyre L (2018) Post-Truth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • O’Shaughnessy NJ (2004) Politics and propaganda: weapons of mass seduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Rabin-Havt AR (2016) Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics. New York: Anchor Books.


Photograph: Mark Thomas/Rex/Shutterstock (Guardian, 16 June 2016)

Bullshit dissertation studio by J Collins

Details

Tutor Jeremy Collins

Dissertation studios

 
1/2
Drawing

Studio 01: ideas in places

Ektoras Arkomanis

This studio prescribes a direct treatment of place, whether subjective or objective.

Drawing

Studio 02: Narrative and Storytelling

Jon Baldwin

This studio focuses on modes of storytelling and narrative conventions. We will particularly consider how narrative intersects with, and informs, identity.

Store parking area

Studio 03: The Conquest of Joy

Aleks Catina

This studio encourages dialogues around the cultural production at a time when narratives founded on certainty have ceased to make sense.
Farage pointing to his campaign poster

Studio 04: Bullshit, propaganda and post-truth

Jeremy Collins

This studio will look at the emergence of the notion of ‘post truth’ and explore links between other ideas around propaganda and Harry Frankfurt’s argument about ‘bullshit’. We will consider the usefulness of these ideas, and how they can be explored in creative practice.
Portrait of Frau Fiber, a textile worker and activist

Studio 05: Meaningful Work

Paul Harper

This studio will consider the value of making -in itself, independent of the product or outcome, exploring the idea of craft as meaningful work.
Artwork by R Prince

Studio 06: Writing Rough

Andrew Hewish

What are the outer limits of the essay? Write on the edge of the possible in a rich, researched and evidenced discussion which creatively explores the expanded field of the essay.
Text corrections

Studio 08: The things you can tell just by looking (or, Oriented Writing)

Ajay Hothi

Writing tells us who we are and how each of us thinks and interprets the world.
Man under a cascade

Studio 09: Le Marteau Sans Maître

Joseph Kohlmaier

Digging through the deepest layers of archaeological time, André Leroi-Gourhan (La geste et la parole, 1964) concluded that for millions of years, human culture and technology evolved without complex language, rational planning or abstract ‘thinking at a distance’.
Photograph:Harriet McKay

Studio 10: Globalism

Harriet McKay

For good or ill, we live in a global world. Whilst this may appear to be obvious, globalism is only a relatively recent term as is the phenomenon itself. What do we mean by this? How did we arrive in this place?
Installation art by the Korean artists, M. Kyungwon & J. Joonho

Studio 11: Performative Acts: Art, Architecture and Writing

Nico de Oliveira

In the last decade or so we have moved from objects to subjects or audiences. In parallel, the word performative has been adapted from a theoretical term to a key rubric within the discourse of contemporary art, architecture and beyond.
People break off stones from the pavement to use as ammunition. Photo: Robert Nagle, 1997 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Studio 12: Decay, Repair and Back Again

Gabriele Oropallo

Things break down and decay. In this studio you will experiment repair as strategy to negotiate breakdown, and you will practice mining patina and weathering for information and stories.
Anonymous stencil of a quotation from a letter from Leopold 1 of Belgium to his niece, Queen Victoria

Studio 13: ‘If I stay silent nothing will change’: Identity, Politics, Social Change and Creative Culture(s)

Christina Paine

This cross-disciplinary studio considers how power, culture, politics, identity, representation, activism, social media, and mass culture theory intersect with a range of arts practices, including photography, architecture, design and fine art, film studies, fashion and music, sound, pop art, and theatre.
A body engulfed by a web of string

Studio 14: A Material World

Emma Davenport

As the title suggests, this Studio will be based on the processes that are intrinsic to the design and making of textiles, however it will also be looking at the materiality of these textiles as objects.

Installation of several resin coloured cubes aligned on the floor

Studio 15: Souvenir

Lesley Stevenson

This studio is concerned with those objects that are lent a particular enchantment because of their relationship with the past. It considers the role of memory and how it is embodied in cultural artefacts.
A desire path across a green field

Studio 16: Paths of Desire

Heidi Yeo

"Design needs to be plugged into human behaviour. Design dissolves in behaviour." Naoto Fukasawa

Cass Studios archive by year