Graphic Satire, A History

Overview

1. A brief overview and comparison of examples of visual satire throughout history.
2. The research process for a book project.

Process

This is a research project conducted mainly over Wintersession 2008, as an Open Research project. Now, during the spring semester, I intend to package and present my findings as a book.

The 10 minute movie embedded below is a recreation of the 30 minute or so presentation I gave at the Wintersession final review. The review was mostly ad-libbed — I went off on a few tangents, people stopped me to ask questions, etc. But sitting alone at my desk speaking into a microphone, I ended up reading my outline pretty much word for word. (Um, and I think I mispronounce a few names. Sorry about that.)

The feedback that I received on this presentation was mostly positive. My intention for the book I’m currently in-progress on is to show more side-by-side comparisons of work from different eras that fall into the categories I’ve created, and to come up with more satirical/analytical charts.

My goal is an informative overview of representative works, plus analysis that conforms to the nature of my thesis.

Form

The final form of this project was a 98 page book, and chapter for my thesis book that compares, contrasts and categorizes five centuries of graphic satirical work. Images from that project are forthcoming, but the synthesis essay from the research became the introduction to my thesis book, and can be read in its entirety on this site.