The British Library is delighted to present a major new exhibition examining state propaganda, from its origins in the ancient world up until the present day. With over 200 exhibits on display, ranging from chilling Nazi propaganda to modern day ephemera such as bank notes, badges and even tweets which permeate our everyday lives, Propaganda: Power and Persuasion is the first exhibition to gather such a significant range of international state propaganda in one room, looking at its rationales, methods and effectiveness.
Curated by Jude England and Ian Cooke, curators of Social Science at the British Library, the exhibition explores the different ways in which the state has used propaganda to influence the thoughts and feelings of a nation, whether the message it carries creates an enemy, generates feelings of national pride or promotes a healthy lifestyle, and questions how propaganda is changing in a digital age and where it will go next.
Jude England, Head of Social Sciences at the British Library, says: “We want visitors to consider the role of propaganda in their own lives today, as well as look at the state’s use of propaganda throughout history. That’s why, as well as displaying iconic pieces of propaganda from the Library’s collections, such as posters from both World Wars, the Cold War and Vietnam, we’ll also be focusing on more surprising examples, such as the 2012 Olympics and even Twitter – things you wouldn’t necessarily associate with a word like ‘propaganda’”.
The last section of the exhibition looks at propaganda in the 21st century and features a data-driven installation, Chorus. Chorus examines how ideas and opinions spread via Twitter today, where everybody can be a source of influential content. In minimalist typographic animations and using only original Twitter messages, Chorus renders a picture of contemporary propagandistic patterns and their complex choreographies.
大英圖書館推出了他們新一季的大型展覽來探討“國 家宣傳(state propaganda)”的概念,追溯“宣傳”一詞 的古代起源到呈現這個名詞在當下所代表的內涵和外 延。展覽展出了超過200件展品,其中包括噤若寒蟬的 納粹宣傳到現代曇花一現的鈔票、徽章,還有滲透到我 們生活方方面面的“推特”“微博”等社交媒體。《宣傳: 影響力與說服力》是第一個在如此廣泛範圍內探討國 家宣傳的展覽,研究它的基本原理、方法論以及評估它 的實施效果。
此次展覽是由大英圖書館社會科學策展人裘德·英格蘭(Jude England) 和伊恩·庫克(Ian Cooke)策劃的,展覽揭示了不同國家如何通過運用不同 的宣傳手段來達到影響一個國家人民思想和感情的目的,探討了國家宣傳 所承載的信息是否會樹立敵對勢力,是否會促進公眾產生民族自豪感或者 是否對促進健康的生活方式產生積極作用等問題,展覽還提出了在數字時 代,宣傳將如何演進以及未來發展趨勢等疑問。
大英圖書館社會科學策展人裘德.英格蘭表示:“我們希望觀眾通過展覽能 夠思考‘宣傳’在我們日常生活中扮演的角色,並且反思我們的國家在歷史上 所進行的‘宣傳’。正因為如此,我們才會從大英圖書館的收藏中挑選具有代 表性的物品進行展示,比如兩次大戰、冷戰及越南戰爭時期的海報,而且我 們還選取了很多看似令人驚訝的樣本來展示,比如2012年倫敦奧運會,甚至 是‘推特’–這些往往很難讓人與‘宣傳’扯上關係的現象和事件。”
展覽的最後一個部份是著眼於21世紀的‘宣傳’,這部份的亮點是一個叫做 《合唱》的數據驅動的裝置作品。《合唱》這件作品探討了意見和想法在當 下是如何通過社交媒體來傳播的,在網絡上,任何人都可以成為一個發佈 有影響力內容的信息源。在運用簡約排版的動畫及原始社交媒體信息的前 提下,《合唱》呈現了一幅當代的紛繁複雜的信息傳播模式圖。
TIPS 小贴士
展览场地:British Library 大英圖書館
展覽時間:17.5.2013 – 17.9.2013
更多信息:www.bl.uk
