The political psychology of images

by | Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Browsing through Nikita Prokhorov‘s website (see this posting about Nikita’s new blog about the process of creating ambigrams) led me to a fascinating article about how symbols and the historical weight they can carry.

I think a similar issue comes up regarding the use of the swastika in Hindu symbology. In the west, the the association of the Swastika with Nazi Germany is so strong that it is impossible to ignore. Indian designers can explain as much as they want that the Nazi symbol differs from the Hindu one in that one is a mirror image of the other… but how many people notice something that subtle. More information here and here…

Anyway, just some thoughts sparked by reading Nikita’s article Icon-ignorance. I can see this article as being worthwhile reading for my CEP917 and CEP817 classes.

Topics related to this post: Ambigrams | Art | Design | India | Politics | Psychology | Religion | Representation

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