[Reader-list] Myths, Mangoes and ordered houses - re: 10 myths about pakistan

[yasir ~يا سر]

Dear Taha

No I have not looked at many posters, however on a trip to an afghan refugee
camp on the border when the bombing in afghanistan was on, i did buy the
songs of the taliban which were sung without music.   the voice/s were
melodious and there was a chorus in some songs - they sounded like slowly
sung chants.

in the bus there  the bus driver put it on a tape, which i learned later was
a cassette designed as a magazine updating people on what was going on in
the afghanistan fight, with a new edition released every so often. in the
bus people listened for a while but soon were bad mouthing him. it turned
out that the conductor, a young guy was the one who wanted to blast it. he
had to shut up then, but he didnt give up...

as for posters, i probably only know only ones that relate to 'broader
issues'.
see abro:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abro/sets/72157604267486790/

I think someone has looked briefly at a history of wallchalkings as
political statements in karachi - I think in Language and Politics in
Pakistan by Tariq Rehman


best

yasir


2009/1/19 Taha Mehmood <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>

> Dear Yasir (Dear All )
>
> Thank you for pointing out the role of wall chalkings in mobilization of
> people for 'jehad'.  I think chalkings or writings on the wall are an
> important indicator of the socio-political mood of a space. In this regard,
> I want to stretch this idea of chalk writing as a form of mass
> communication, to posters, wall posters and how they are able to hold a
> muted conversation with a multitude.
>
> For instance, the article pasted below talks about posters as a graphic
> form of protest.
>
> An excerpt-
>
> Posters have a distinguished history as vehicles of protest, propaganda and
> commerce, from 15th-century broadsheets supporting the Protestant
> Reformation to 19th-century theater billboards by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
> In the 20th century, politics and art merged in powerful propaganda posters
> in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Communist China. The American
> counterculture of the late 1960s inspired a renaissance of protest posters,
> in psychedelic colors.
>
> It would be interesting to know what sort of posters are in vogue in
> Pakistan today. I would like to believe that almost all of them would have a
> local flavor but certainly there must be some which relate to broader
> issues.
>
> May I suggest you to please share with us, if you can, your own reflections
> about how were posters related to Islamic jihad designed or framed.etc Were
> they similar or different to say posters distributed at sufi shrines,
> especially in terms of iconography and here I am, of course,  specifically
> referring to Yusuf Saeed's monumental work on posters and  syncretic
> cultures.
>
> Regards
>
> Taha
>
>
>
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44847-2005Jun4.html
>
> Graphic Forms of Protest
>
>  By Linda Hales
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Saturday, June 4, 2005; Page C01
>
>  A graphic printed on a T-shirt demands, "Curb Your God."
>
> A poster for designer jeans shows one pant leg knotted, as if the wearer
> were an amputee. The words War Wear have been appended to the brand's label:
> Rifle.
>
>
> Another poster mimics Apple Computer's colorful advertising campaign for
> the iPod. Except this one is about "iRaq" and the logo is a bomb, not an
> apple. The black figure silhouetted against a hot pink background is not
> dancing to iTunes but is a hooded prisoner from Abu Ghraib, balancing on a
> box with hands attached to a white cord.
>
> These are three of more than 400 provocative, emotionally charged graphics
> in "The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics"
> (Rockport). The book of posters, buttons, illustrations and other graphics
> was compiled by Milton Glaser, dean of American graphic designers, with
> Mirko Ilic, a noted illustrator and art director. An exhibition of 100
> designs opened yesterday at New York's School of Visual Arts, where Glaser
> and Ilic teach.
>
> In an age dominated by moving images, these freeze-frame visuals hold their
> own. They represent the activist strain of graphic design. Like contemporary
> advertising, it thrives on shock, wit and instant recognition. But as
> playwright Tony Kushner writes in the book's foreword, there must also be
> "some galling truth . . . imprisoned beneath the surface of public
> discourse" that causes a designer to fire a signal flare.
>
> Glaser calls the collection an international survey of "nontraditional
> dissenting opinion." The designer, who is best known for the "I H NY" logo,
> says that lately he has been focused on the importance of expressing
> dissent. The essence of his view is captured on a button he designed, which
> declares "DISSENT *Protects **Democracy*."
>
> "Once you say that dissent protects democracy, people get the idea right
> away," Glaser said by phone this week. "When you have dissenting opinion, it
> comes out of some idea that fairness or appropriateness has been violated."
>
> Work on the book began with a global call for submissions. Glaser and Ilic
> received more than a thousand richly varied examples. Most of those selected
> were created after 2000 and address politics, racism, corporate power,
> pollution, religion, media, animal rights and food. Three sections are
> devoted to war and strife -- in the former Yugoslavia, in Iraq and between
> Israel and Palestinians. Concepts of peace and equality get as much space.
>
> Images dominate all but 12 of the book's 240 pages. Minimal text includes
> an interview with Glaser. Ilic is represented by cover art for the
> alternative magazine World War 3 Illustrated showing a ferocious hound in
> camouflage fatigues preparing to devour a bone labeled Iraq. The caption
> does not indicate whether the artist was illustrating a story or drawing his
> own conclusions. The Bosnian-born New Yorker has described himself as an
> "individual anarchist" willing to "poke fun at any power, because all of
> them are corrupt."
>
> Emotions run high, whatever the topic, but techniques and symbols run the
> gamut. The iRaq poster by Copper Greene relies on parody. The T-shirt
> designer, Daniel Young, needed only typography to express concern that
> so-called divine directives are sparking violence and intolerance. The jeans
> were designed by Slovenian artist Tomato Kosir as a commentary on
> consumerism and war. The Coca-Cola logo appears in many guises. Fingerprints
> are popular images. So is raw meat.
>
> Samantha Hoover, assistant director of communications for the School of
> Visual Arts, says creative people tend to be liberal. But the book was not
> intended to be one-sided. Palestinian and Israeli points of view were
> included, Glaser points out. Communism is skewered. So is President Bush. A
> design team from Slovenia played off the American Dairy Association's "Got
> Milk?" campaign for a "Got Oil?" poster on which Bush sports a mustache of
> oil. The poster shows how astonishingly global advertising has become.
>
> Posters have a distinguished history as vehicles of protest, propaganda and
> commerce, from 15th-century broadsheets supporting the Protestant
> Reformation to 19th-century theater billboards by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
> In the 20th century, politics and art merged in powerful propaganda posters
> in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Communist China. The American
> counterculture of the late 1960s inspired a renaissance of protest posters,
> in psychedelic colors. These days, Hoover senses renewed interest in public
> affairs.
>
> "Since 9/11, with the Iraqi war and all that's happening, twenty- and
> thirtysomethings are paying attention to current affairs in a different
> way," she says.
>
> Some issues are constant. In 1969, Dan Reisinger conveyed a message about
> Jewish emigration from the former Soviet Union by using the hammer and
> sickle as the "G" in "Let My People Go." More than 20 years later, he drew a
> poster warning of a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. A recent
> poster by Turkish designer Bulent Erkmen for an Israeli client sought to
> address the sharing of power in Jerusalem. The word "equal" is presented as
> a page from a dictionary. All attempts at definition have been struck
> through with a red line.
>
> Chaz Maviyane-Davies produced gripping posters relating the United Nations
> Articles on Human Rights to an African audience. For Article 4, a figure
> wears free-flowing dreadlocks made of chains above the words, "No one should
> be subjected to slavery or servitude."
>
> Malaysian designer Theresa Tsang created three posters that protest the
> abuse of women. What appears to be the imprint of a lipstick kiss is an
> amalgam of photos of knuckles, glass shards and men beating women.
>
> Design can transform even grim topics. In Serbia, the Thea Line cosmetics
> company commissioned an antiwar poster using its product. The designer, Igor
> Avzner, turned lipstick tubes into a cartridge belt, which is worn by a
> fashion model. The message reads, "Make Up, Not War."
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 9:30 AM, yasir ~يا سر <yasir.media at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 4:45 AM, Rahul Asthana <rahul_capri at yahoo.com
>> >wrote:
>>
>> > There are/were jihadi donation boxes in all the major cities of
>> Pakistan.
>>
>> Those, along with wall chalkings for 'jihadi camp training' were cleaned
>> up
>> by Musharraf in around 2002. so anything since then is underground and not
>> tolerated.
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