This is an activist poster for my Final Project on the subject of International Criminal Court (ICC). As the International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, I started to make a human rights advocacy poster based on what ICC addresses as the international criminal court. As I was interested in learning more about International Criminal Court, my first intend was to learn more about the court by searching online and I even watched a human rights advocacy movie called the Reckoning.

Reckoning was an exclusive overview of ICC and the human rights abuses since Holocaust. The film was incredibly good at showing the human rights violations that occurred. In fact, some images and stories were incredibly violent and/or graphic. But I think this is a good decision because it has more of an effect of the audience. There were also first had accounts of the abuses from victims in the different countries. Some of the stories told my children were especially moving and for the same reason I tried to use images that can stand out and be affective in bringing people’s interest to the cause.

My intent was to start gathering pictures and images primarily related to the subject of my project though finding images and pictures with high pixel resolutions was time consuming but not impossible. Besides I tried my level best to find images that are emotionally evocative photos to work with. After gathering all the raw material that really supported my project, I began to put together a poster for International Criminal Court and abuses of human rights. It is a poster generalizing ICC rule in addressing human rights issue as an international court and speaking as advocate for deaths in Guatemala, Cambodia .East Timor, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.

As you can see I have tried not to use too many vivid colors though I have more focused on using Red because I think it helps to show the emphasis and focus on the intensity of the human rights issues and role of ICC. The two pictures that I have used of President Bush and Hitler is to present that world leaders have been involved in human rights abuses from Holocaust to creation of unlawful torture of detainees in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. It shows the purpose that ICC has in bringing in even world leaders to justice who has committed atrocities of all kinds. Ultimately, I think the poster is informative and an effective advocacy tool for Human rights and the ICC.

I like the  one shot idea about the commercial. It presents the three characters in a static but rather more spoken state in the shot. Words are used as the means to present the commerical in a circustic and also nerdy way. We can see the long shot, medium shot, two shot, close up  shots in the commercial. It is simple but meaning ful in comparing MAC vs. PC. The white surface is used to make the characters stand out and be the main focu in the shot. The character of a nerdy, cool and a casual guy is used to show the dynamics within the commercial. Having a nerdy guy admit the flaws in PC is intentional to campare and show Mac a more of better operating system.

M.I.A. often uses her music and art to address issues related to war, violence and political turmoil. Her interest in these issues is largely due to her father’s involvement in the political uprisings of his native Sri Lanka. Free Paper Planes takes this social awareness in a new direction by addressing issues of city life and urban violence. It offers stories of people working awful jobs for little money, only to be relegated to life in unsavory neighborhoods. It was a surprising move, because in the context of Paper Planes MP3, the gunshots aren’t meant to glorify violence. M.I.A. has reportedly stated that the song’s use of the sounds of guns (and cash registers) in the chorus can be interpreted as either the sounds common to a bad neighborhood or as an indictment of a political system based around the sale of arms both at home and abroad. In the video, M.I.A. stars as an immigrant who sells bread. There are also shots of M.I.A. and a group of her friends walking down a New York street. Gunshots make the song impossible to ignore and it is lyrically angry and world-weary at the same time. In the video, several paper planes fly over New York City. M.I.A. appears as an immigrant who sells sandwiches from a van to several other New Yorkers. At the sound of the gunshots, quick shots of street signs, people, and restaurant signs appear.

This is part of the my scarf’s texture. In real, it is black and white but after applying Invert,Dark Strokes,Difuse with distort glue and noise. I have a new texture of black and red with yellowish highlights  for my scarf. It is very detailed with different colors and it looks cool.

Posterize and Blur option give my sheesha a more noisy and fun look! I love smoking Sheesha and it is very cultural for me after growing up in an Afghan society.

I used cutout from the Artistic option under Filters menu to transform a self portrait picture of mine to something more artistic.

Lawrence of Arabia

The historical epic is told and centered on the character of Peter O’Toole in the role of Lawrence who   draws up plans to aid the Arabs in their rebellion against the Turks during the First World War. The Child- like expressions of Lawrence and his differences of character presented in the movie make him able to learn riding camel in the deserts of Arabia with a native guide. The visual dynamics of clothing from a British army and transforming to native Arab clothing presents the cultural differences within two societies. The visual theme of settings in the movie, the dessert, the sand, the will, the camels, the destroyed architectures, the tents are all visual elements that allow us two compare and contrast the differences of two cultures and different population. Lawrence being the center of the focus covers the empty space in the movie for a female co-actor.  In a film without a single female speaking part, the journey of Lawrence on the desert presents the desert of Arabia as a friend, a foe and the love interest. Lawrence learns to survive in the unknown desert as the stranger and more importantly adopt the flexibility of living with different people in the desert as he would have if there was a female character in the movie.

It is said that the main perceived problems with the portrayal of Lawrence begin with the differences in his physical appearance: 6 foot 2 inch Peter O’Toole was quite a contrast with the real Lawrence, who was almost nine inches shorter. However, his adaptation of the Arab culture and winning their trust even with his comparatively white skin shows the success of visual elements in the movie where he leads the army of Arabs with a different skin color and different accent. Furth more, the difference of look, character and ways of communication visually presented in the movie as the center piece makes Lawrence to stand out among the Arab population in the deserts of Arabia.

First and fomost, I am a big fun of Bonds movies. The reason that this Tytle sequence interested me peronally was the use of cards in the sequence. I like play poker and I found Casino Royale to take the idea of poker to another level in the movie. As a fun of poker and cards, the tytle sequence caught my eye with some clever idea of using hearts and cards to start the Bonds movie. As a matter of fact, i found it different in from other previous bond movies which women have been the theme of the tytle sequence.

The heart arrows shot of the gun, the macro glimpse from the heart of queen presenting the lady in the movie, and finally targetting the seven of hearts with two shots on them creating the image of 007 and James bond were my favorite in the title sequence. Overall, the quality, graphics and use of cards has given the title sequence a classy edge.