S02/ SIMPLE MYTHOLOGIES
Simple Mythologies / 2019
A motion poster series capturing some of the prevailing political myths of our time.
Year: Fall 2018
Typology: Video
Size: 1280 x 720 px
Typology: Video
Size: 1280 x 720 px
Tools: Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D
Typefaces: Akzidenz Grotesk Extended by Berthold Type Foundry
Typefaces: Akzidenz Grotesk Extended by Berthold Type Foundry
A motion poster series capturing some of the prevailing political myths of our time.
BARTHES AT THE BARBER’S
It is said that when the French cultural theorist Roland Barthes walked into a local barber shop in Paris in 1955, he was given a copy of the Paris Match magazine to read as he waited for his turn. On the cover, he noticed, was a young black soldier in French uniform saluting what seemed to be the French tricolor outside the frame.Barthes found the image to be powerful because it symbolized something far beyond the stern countenance of a young soldier. Eschewing any explicit denotations of Frenchness or militariness, the genius of the image was to connote the greatness of the French empire, where all her citizens, regardless of race, served under her flag. The boy was used as a signifier, and unstinting imperial devotion was what he signified.
The Paris Match cover, to Barthes, was a sophisticated example of a myth. Simply put, a myth was an idea or concept that was naturalized—made to look unquestionably obvious and inherent to the human condition—to serve the interests of the ruling class. An example of a myth, as given by Barthes, was the promotion of wine in France as the drink of the proletariat; a great equalizer that was life-giving and pure, completely avoiding the harmful health effects of the drink.
Similarly, we find ourselves in a world inundated by myths propaganda engines. Take for example the 30th anniversary of Nike’s Just Do It campaign.
































