My Art Project

            My research was involving the manipulative capabilities of propaganda during World War II.  I highlighted examples from both Nazi Germany and the United States, specifically film and posters, two of the most prevalent mediums used by the government at the time.  They were also some the most effective means of getting the state’s message across to the American and German people, as well as the territories under the control of Nazi Germany.  Their effectiveness lies in the mediums ability to reach mass audiences, which we also discussed in class; who exactly is consuming the artworks.  In the beginning of the semester we discussed graffiti and cave paintings a decent amount, which got me to thinking about the consistency throughout humanity to put up our artworks on walls, so this line of thought led me to propaganda posters and the power of those artworks to motivate the average citizen; artwork on a massive scale, implemented by the government.  We discussed the meaning or intentions of art and, in this case, the meaning and intentions were quite clear: manipulate and coerce the masses into achieving the goals of the state.

            My research process involved a lot of reading.  I gathered a bulk of material relating to propaganda.  I searched peer-reviewed, scholarly articles, and a couple of books to gain a full understanding of where my research could go.  My first wave of searching involved trying to find articles analyzing propaganda for its artistic value, it led to a few articles but not too much.  Then I cut down the broadness of my search and limited it down to WWI and WWII propaganda amongst the various nation-states involved in the conflict; still too much information.  I decided to limit the subject to the various forms of WWII propaganda in Russia, Germany, Japan, and the US, but the research I gathered had just as much about the use of film as it about posters.  At that point it was clear that film had to be included.  When it came down to crunch-time and I began trying to form my research into something pretty I realized that the scope should be limited to the two superpowers of the war: America and Germany.  This scope was needed because of the high amount of propaganda used in WWII, specifically by these two nation-states, and especially through the mediums of film and posters.

            If I had to do a follow-up project to this it would be the analysis of propaganda by social and behavioral scientists in between WWI and WWII, leading up to the role of social and behavioral scientists in the Office of War Information.