Sean Oulashin

6/1/2014
Jon Albertson
Lit Period 1
Dystopia Poster Explanations

I based the poster off of the NSA surveillance that has taken place over the past few years. This kind of
surveillance made me think of the connections between Orwell’s “1984” - how there was some kind of
surveillance in every room and on every street: either by security cameras or ‘Thought Police.’
In the background, Mt. Hood was superimposed into the original backdrop to add atmosphere, and to position
nature against the city skyline. The buildings in the background were found by typing in “dystopia” into Google
Images.
The main focus of the poster is in the foreground - the laptop, which is labeled “DystopiaBook Pro” in place of
the original “MacBook” text.
On the screen is the National Security Administration’s logo. I ended up shrinking the eagle in the center
to make room for the text around it saying “WE’RE ALWAYS WATCHING,” paying homage to the constant
surveillance in Orwell’s novel. On the eagle’s head are a pair of headphones, symbolizing how the NSA ended
up recording phone conversations.
Behind the logo is a glitch screen with a man in a suit in a repeating pattern. I wanted this to represent
how in dystopia, everything is “better” if it is uniform. In “1984”, even thinking the wrong thing will get you in
a lot of trouble.
Lastly, an eyeball peeking through the webcam symbolizes the whole idea in general of surveillance.
The idea was that it is the ‘all seeing eye,’ and the brightness of it was supposed to communicate that not even
your thoughts are safe.