The project I have chosen is one that is interesting to me. The design of this project is quite simple, almost to the point of being abstract. The design is of an arm, most definitely still attached to the body, in a puddle of what is supposed to be blood, the text “Stop Police Brutality” is on the bottom half of the picture. I have chosen this topic because it is a large controversy in the political and social climate of the United States. I chose this form of outreach simply because it has been shown in the past to be effective in the spread of information, such as political cartoons and such.
The message of this project for the audience is to cease the police brutality present in the United States. Police brutality is a serious problem, affecting many people, primarily, and especially, minorities. There are many news articles and social media outcries discussing this topic. I have conducted some research on this topic. According to masslive.com ,”Springfield narcotics detective Gregg A. Bigda was acquitted on four criminal counts Monday afternoon after a week-long police brutality trial.” This person was “indicted in 2018 by a federal grand jury for excessive force in connection with allegedly punching and kicking young car theft suspects during an arrest in 2016, two counts of “abusive interrogation” for threatening to kill and plant drugs on them, plus drafting a false police report.” Today, as of December 15, 2021, Derek Chauvin, the officer that was convicted for the murder of George Floyd, pleaded guilty for violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Keep in mind, George Floyd was murdered back in May of 2020. Why did it take so long for Chauvin to plead guilty? According to the book This is what I know about Art, on Page 50, “I began to understand how intimately art and activism could work together to produce a collective voice and shared community.” I believe that this excerpt from the book works for what I did, using art to spread activism about a topic.
Police brutality could be seen as a form of racism. Despite making up 13% of the U.S. population, 27% of people killed by police are black, at least according to mappingpoliceviolence.org. This unfair treatment has affected people mentally, according to news.harvard.edu, “A first-ever study in 2018 found that a police killing of an unarmed African American triggered days of poor mental health for Black people living in that state over the following three months - a significant problem given there are about 1,000 police killings annually on average, with African Americans comprising a disproportionate 25 percent to 30 percent of those.” According to nature.com, “By one estimate, Black men are 2.5 times more than likely than white men to be killed by police during their lifetime. And in another study, Black people who were fatally shot by police seemed to be twice as likely as white people to be unarmed.
Unfortunately, I was unable to “publish” this project for an audience to see. This project could possibly fit in my portfolio if I ever decide to get a major in Graphic Design. I’m pretty sure an art project would be good for jobs looking for someone with a degree in Graphic Design.
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01846-z
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