Buzzfeed v. Design of Dissent

Check out the Design of Dissent Exhibition and Buzzfeed’s 50 Best Protest Signs of 2009.  The Exhibition is a great selection of images covering a range of different political issues and perspectives.  Click the slide show under the “add to favorites” tab to see the images.  Think about the presentation of the work in a building as opposed to on the street.  What would be different about the experience?  Regarding Buzzfeed, I’m not sure “best” is the right word here, but this is what you are up against.  These are people like you who have something to say.   Are they successful?

I think that looking through both of these protest signs and posters in their different settings was really an interesting experience. I found that the general feel for each of these websites was quite different. The Buzzfeed's 50 "best" signs featured signs that mainly utilized humor (and some used irony) to argue the point the protester was trying to make. On the other hand, the signs on the Design of Dissent Exhibition website definitely took an approach that was more solemn, serious, and I would say intellectual. I say intellectual because if someone comes inside a building to see such protest and political images, they usually have 1. heard about the exhibition 2. probably have knowledge about some of the issues. The protest signs from the Buzzfeed's website assumed less of the viewers in general and the humor contributed to that light feel that seemed to serve the singular purpose of either promoting awareness or simply exercising one's right to protest (haha or maybe just making others angry, I cannot really know). As far as the signs inside and outside being effective, I guess that would depend on what the creators of the signs intended and I think, the intentions of the creator/artist were definitely impacted by the location at which their sign would be displayed.