How does your visual representation capture the complexities of human experiences in

1984 and your related material? 

Human experiences are, by their very nature, anomalous and inconsistent. The human
experiences within both George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Shaun tans ‘Rules of Summer’
encapsulates this concept through their imagery, characterisation and plot, elements of
storytelling in both novels that I have gone onto reproduce and reinvent within my own
poster.

Drawing on the anomalous objects and ideas within ‘Rules of Summer’, the centrepiece of
the poster is the salient white scroll of rules. Almost comically oversized, the scroll exists to
replicate the objects and characters within ‘Rules of Summer‘ that show, in a very literal
sense, how small the boys are in both influence and control over their many surrealist
environments. ‘1984’ has a similar effect in the way that Winston is dwarfed by the power
and control of the party over his literal and metaphysical landscape. the size of the scroll
comes to represents both ideas, towering over the minute character reading its unreadable
text, the metaphor for the size of the party and the lack of power of the individual clear.

Both texts exist on the idea of rules that are seemingly always relevant, but at the same time
inconsistent, anomalous and unknowable, I’ve chosen to represent that through the ‘stand
in-text’ on the poster. Squiggly lines are often used as shorthand for text within media, but by
having the text stay as unreadable squiggly lines as the lines grow larger (the angle at which
this happens is in itself anomalous with the lines becoming too large too quickly, creating an
inconsistency with realistic perspective.) shows that up close the rules and regulations for
both texts are unclear and anomalous, a theoretical guesswork that only the author (party)
knows and acts as a subversion of the previously mentioned visual standard.

The human figure attempting to read the lines is a representation of the main characters in
both my texts, anomalous in how they stand out in both my poster and their own stories.
Fruitlessly the figure tries to interpret and align themselves with the lines on the wall that
neither they, nor we the audience, understand while a crowd of onlookers (represented by
the purple circles) watches on, judging, almost fading into their surroundings while the
protagonist’s stands out (itself a representation of how the protagonist exists as an
inconsistency within their own world).

A comment upon the nature of  truth within oppressive societies, the underside of the scroll
cast in shadow away from the gaze of the watchful streelamp/eye depicts a secondary title of
‘rules’ with an adjacent quote reading ‘the proles and the animals are free’. A quote from
‘1984’ the line is a representation of a true rule within the novel, a contrast of both meaning
and colour from the dominant depiction of ‘rules.’

While the scroll of rules exists as a representation of the oppressive power of environments
and people in both texts, the glass paperweight shown at the bottom of the piece acts as an
emotionally charged rejection of this power. A literal recreation of the paperweight within
‘1984’, the glass sphere creates a literal kink in the rules, bending the paper of the scroll.
Quietly existing as a representation of rebellion under the scroll, and away from the eyes of
the crowd and lamp and seen only by the audience, the sphere represents the ability for
objects and ideas to subvert the power of the ‘rules’ within both texts and how humanity may
latch on to such objects (as Winston does in ‘1984’).  The colouring of the sphere is also
noteworthy as red, a colour most often associated with love and emotion, contrasts the rest
of the landscape coated in a cool calm purple and so contrasts the cold emotionless ideas of
the scene, with the only other appearance of anything other than purple, black or white
existing as a light tinge on the central human form of the piece (a call back to the anomalous
main characters of both texts, inconsistent with their own worlds).
A deliberate connection is made in both texts showing true freedom and joy is found in the
natural world, and that a cold feeling of detachment surrounds urban landscapes. I’ve
chosen to depict such an effect through the seemingly oppressive urban landscapes
surrounding the scene of the poster. The streetlight illuminating the scroll and figure is an
eye, reflecting the eye motifs in both ‘1984’ and ‘Rules of Summer’ while perpetuating the
idea of being monitored seen throughout both texts. The skyline surrounds the scene as a
dark wall, windows simulating the beauty of stars while never truly replicating them, a
metaphor for the urban vs natural divide. 

The human experiences seen within ‘1984’ and ‘Rules of Summer’ and described by my
tagline are inherently anomalous and inconsistent. Through imagery and wording I have
conveyed these same thoughts through my poster.