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

A few randomly selected blog posts…

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Being a tourist in Taipei

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I woke up this morning, feeling maybe for the first time in this entire trip, tired and a little homesick. I ascribe the first to the rather hectic schedule I have had the past 10 days so, continually on the move, presentation after presentation, meeting after...

Tipping point for online learning: The interview

Tipping point for online learning: The interview

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I had written a blog post towards the beginning of the pandemic (Tipping point for online learning, OR the postman always rings twice). In this piece, I built on something Neil Postman had written back in 1998 to try and better understand the current context....

New ambigram: Nihal

Oct 9, 2009

My friend, Hartosh (I had written previously about his mathematical novel here) and his wife Pam, recently had a baby boy. This ambigram is of his name: Nihal Enjoy.

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