For this project, I focused on the major current political issue in the Philippines and designed a way to present it with my satirical, protest-ical perspective.
The history:
On June 30th, 2022, the Philippines’ seventeenth president rose to power: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. 36 years ago, the People Power revolution drove out the country’s tyrannical dictator of martial law: Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
During Bongbong’s father’s 20-year rule,
- total censorship of the press
- 6 out of 10 Filipino families were in poverty
- he stole between $5-10 billion from the government
- 107,200 victims were mostly killed, tortured, and imprisoned
- 2,326 were either killed or disappeared, never to be found
- at least 3,200 innocent people were killed
- from 1971-1986, at least 878 people went missing and are now considered as desaparecidos (the disappeared)
- 34,000 individuals tortured for fighting against tyranny
His downfall finally triggered when “opposition leader Benigno Aquino had been in exile in the United States after fleeing the Marcos regime. Determined to bring democracy to his country, he flew back to the capital Manila – but was shot dead after landing.” (BBC) Marcos won the presidency again as a result of massive electoral fraud, which sparked the 4 days of unrest of the People’s Power Revolution. He and his family fled to Hawaii in exile, where he died 3 years later in 1989.
Years after his death, his infamous wife Imelda Marcos has continued in her attempt to revive his legacy. This year, her plan for returning to power finally came into fruition, with her son Bongbong Marcos winning the presidency, putting the Marcos regime back on the throne.
Planning:
My preliminary sketches were definitely more web-based: I was putting a lot of emphasis on the interactive part of the design. My objective was set though: I wanted to protest Bongbong by ridiculing him, equalizing him as just another bong.
Code Iteration #1: p5 project linked here
This first iteration was a drawing tool to uncover the hidden “BONGBONG” on the canvas. Dragging the mouse draws Bongbong’s face, but pressing down while dragging draws images of bongs. From here, Tega helped me implementing the p5.riso library, but I realized that this drawing interaction wouldn’t translate well onto print since the overlapping images would just result in dark ink blobs.
Code Iteration #2: p5 project linked here
Tega encouraged me to think more systematically / algorithmically, so in this iteration, I used Rune Madsen’s easy grid library to evenly layout the randomly generated images from the array of bongs and Bongbongs.
Final Code Iteration: p5 project linked here
For my final result, I was quite happy with the p5 preview of a yellow background with blue on top. When I got to printing, however, I soon learned that this color combination wasn’t as legible as I thought. So, with Yixun’s immense help, I experimented with other color combinations based on the colors of the Filipino flag (blue on red, yellow on blue, yellow on red, and red on blue. As for the unpredictability and control in my design, I’m glad Tega suggested I implement the grid in someway. I think that this “organized chaos” works really well with the intent of my work, which is to compare Bongbong to a bong, equally. I think that having the images of his face with the bongs ties this in together well. The white cutout text was initially a bit tricky to be legible, so I decided to cut it in half and place it at the top and bottom of the print. Yixun also suggested that I add the phrase “(the first bong)” at the top to add to the irony.
History sources:
Why the Marcos family is so infamous in the Philippines
In 1986, the Philippines’ People Power was world’s bright spot
Marcos’ martial law: Golden age for corruption, abuses
Design sources:
I was inspired by Tega’s presentation on experimental protest posters. I did not have any specific works I referenced.