Critique and Evaluation.

Throughout the production of the Conservative Manifesto I have tried to follow a theme which was emphasised in the book Utopia by Thomas More. In this book he describes a society of where everything is orderly and peaceful, where wants and needs are met and there is no social unrest and everyone lives in peaceful coexistence.

However this idyllic system is built upon one social class dominating another and the only reason this is possible is because a class system is maintained without being challenged by anyone. But of when people talk about Utopia, about having a just a fair society by achieving Utopia they are supporting a rigid social class system that has benefited the upper class whilst the lower classes support support the higher classes but don't benefit themselves.

The reason why this becomes relevant is because when a political manifesto is published it is promoting their own version of Utopia. In effect the political party are saying that if they could implement everything within their manifesto then everything would work smoothly and so a version of Utopia would be created. But to create Utopia requires one social class to the subjection of another, it would be necessary to maintain order, which is then achieved by the use of oppression and control.

I chose the Conservative party manifesto because they are the party in power. With this being the case they then have the means to achieve their own version of Utopia, which is laid out in their manifesto, which can lead to repression and control. The same results could of been achieved with the Labour Party Manifesto, but because they don't have any political power, this would undermine the portrayal of the use of power and social control.

With using the Conservative Manifesto, I decided to draw comparisons with the Nazi regime of the 1920s onwards to the present day. There were two reasons for using this type of imagery, the first being the subjection of one social class, the Jews, with the second being the Nazi’s were fascists which have an extreme right wing ideology and the conservatives have the same political ideals but are not so extreme. This meant there could be some common ground between the two with the only difference being the level extremity.

Overall I think the manifesto has worked well. It has maintained a cohesive narrative throughout and expresses the use of social and political control through violence, fear and hatred. By maintaining this narrative throughout the manifesto it does produce a tension within itself, with the manifesto embodying hope for a form of Utopia contrasted with images of violence, which would be used to create and maintain that form of Utopia.

Admittedly some of the imagery could be better, but considering there is over 80 pages, there is bound to be fluctuations. On each page I have underlined part of the text to help anchor the definition of the photograph and this, I think, has worked well. For instance, page 13 shows a man being beaten by riot police with the words “we will support” clearly demonstrates what is being supported.

I have also reversed the text except for the part that is being used to anchor the image. The intention behind this is that it can be hard to understand and grasp what a politician says, especially when they are avoiding a direct answer. By reversing the text, it is still partly legible but is much harder to understand and sort of makes sense, but the viewer can be in the position that they are concentrating so much on reading backwards that they forget what was said. I do think this has worked particularly well as politicians do often need deciphering to make them understandable.

I also chose to just use either one or two images per page. The reason for this is to achieve a simple and direct message, I found that if I used too many images, then the translation of the overall meaning became harder to understand. By transmitting a clear and cohesive message throughout helps to strengthen the overall message, which is about the state using violence, power and control to maintain social order.

However I did find producing the posters more challenging. I created a few designs which didn’t really work and I wanted to use a different type of narrative to the manifesto, something that could make an impact by itself but still support the manifesto. I decided that using this as an opportunity to ridicule the conservative party would be the simplest way because by looking at other political posters, this was a common approach.

Overall, as with the manifesto, I am generally happy with the posters and I think they compliment the manifesto well. However, poster one doesn’t really fit with the series as it is a different design to the others, which produces a continuity for those four posters. I decided to use the same caption on each poster, which originally came from the poster one, and again has helped to parody the original message. Each poster has its own theme, concentrating on either taxes, immigration, wealth and Europe, with poster one being more an overview of conservative actions.

Reflecting on the project as a whole, it has been a good experience. I will be the first to admit that even though editing photographs on the computer through photoshop does not come naturally to me, this has been a learning and productive experience. I also feel that I understand photomontages better and appreciate their production, of how much and effort can be invested into producing a strong and powerful artwork.