The elective series A: Word & Image / B: Design and Politics were intensive workshops where we collaborated with our peers to reflect on the meaning of images. Word and Image began with a task of photographing 3 people, 3 places and 3 objects. Once in groups, we looked at how framing, cropping, and adding text to our images could play alter our understanding or play visual games. We then used these combinations to form narratives.
In Design & Politics, we applied how these same theories could be used to manipulate meaning in the mainstream media. I chose to deconstruct the story of Chen Guangcheng–a Chinese dissident who claimed asylum in an American embassy–and how this topic transformed into a visual metaphorical struggle of the US versus China.