Imagery can have an impact on the way an entire society functions on a much more influential level than mere words. Attached to our continually increasing reliance on visual stimulation as a tool in popular culture needs to be a heavy emphasis on maintaining responsibility with those who create and activate the imagery of our visually literate society.
Scott Grieger is an artist who focuses on how symbology affects our everyday emotional state, especially on a subconscious level. His show and installation titled Be Here Now! was highly influenced by how such corporate symbology is tied to militaristic intentions and will ultimately usher in Armageddon. One important piece of the show was his "swooshtika", which arranges a series of Nike swooshes in such a way to form a swastika. Grieger is referencing the power of images to control thought and stimulate action. They are hung on two sides of the gallery like impressive banners used as tools both in corporate hype and promoting government propaganda. A thermometer placed before a "red hot" globe suggests urgency and as the temperature slowly increases, one senses that the amount of time before the end of the world is quickly decreasing. All this imagery leaves the audience highly anxious and proves Grieger's point that a visually literate culture has the ability to be manipulated easily into forming one emotion or another, which may then lead to either action or inaction. While the corporate world might suggest inaction toward current environmental and political issues, Greiger's imagery encourages being proactive against such schools of thought.
Scott Grieger is an artist who focuses on how symbology affects our everyday emotional state, especially on a subconscious level. His show and installation titled Be Here Now! was highly influenced by how such corporate symbology is tied to militaristic intentions and will ultimately usher in Armageddon. One important piece of the show was his "swooshtika", which arranges a series of Nike swooshes in such a way to form a swastika. Grieger is referencing the power of images to control thought and stimulate action. They are hung on two sides of the gallery like impressive banners used as tools both in corporate hype and promoting government propaganda. A thermometer placed before a "red hot" globe suggests urgency and as the temperature slowly increases, one senses that the amount of time before the end of the world is quickly decreasing. All this imagery leaves the audience highly anxious and proves Grieger's point that a visually literate culture has the ability to be manipulated easily into forming one emotion or another, which may then lead to either action or inaction. While the corporate world might suggest inaction toward current environmental and political issues, Greiger's imagery encourages being proactive against such schools of thought.
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