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Research
Nuclear holocaust: scenario involving widespread destruction and radioactive fallout.
The butterfly effect: A theory that a small action has a large consequence
Hot war: a war with active military hostilities
Cold war: The opposite of the hot war. a peaceful war formed through threats and propaganda. No fights.
Nuclear: Involved through science (chemistry) with relating to the nucleus of an atom
Propaganda: a misleading and biased information provided by the government that is normally portrayed through art and cartoons.
The butterfly effect was a name given by an American meteorologist and mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz back in the 1960's in the middle of a cold war between the US and the USSR. The butterfly effect is a theory that one small change, for example, a flutter of a butterfly's wings can lead up to the events of a storm happening down the line.
Edward first announced the theory after running weather forecasts through a computer to calculate the upcoming weather. By changing a small part of calculation with wind speed or temperature caused a dermatic influence of two months worth of weather predictions. This was just an experiment through the weather but it didn't just limit it to that as it also links to every thought, event and outcome can change as every event that leads up to this moment is the result of a past action.
An example of the butterfly effect is seen throughout history, one example would be a single car turn could have changed the future, the car turning leading to the event of world war one. World war one was a key moment is history that changed millions of lives and caused the events of world war two to the cold war or tension in the middle east. The problem is if there was no world war one a bigger and monstrosity of a war would have broken out.
As displayed to the right we can confidently say that the happening of world war one was long waited by a long line of causes as the outcome of the war was a combination of a number of events and things but if one single event changed or was altered could have changed this course and the future entirely. This event was a wrong turn of a single car (A small action leading to a large consequence.) The car was carrying the dutch of Austria: France Ferdinand, a granite was thrown at his car which failed to kill him but hurt those behind him. Later that day June 28th, 1914 France wanted to visit those harmed by the blast. While making his way to visit them his driver made a wrong turn which leads down a road where a gunman was waiting outside a cafe. This lead to the event of the infamous hot war that was world war one.
If Francis driver didn't make that wrong turn, Francis would not have been shot, Austria or Hungary would not have declared war on the home country of the man who assassinated Francis which caused Germany to declare war on Russia which brought in the allies against each other. If Francis was not killed world war one wouldn't have happened that way but instead under different circumstances later on down the line which would have changed the outcome of the war.
The whole idea of the butterfly effect revolves around order of events that lead up to an event and around what if's as another example would be around JFK (John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy president of America throughout 1961 - 1963) and his back brace as an incident from when he was younger caused him to wear a back brace causing his to keep his back straight sitting up. The person who shot him, their first shot wasn't harmful or damaging as it hit Kennedy in the shoulder, but because Kennedy couldn't fall down under the seat to safety within the car due to the back brace keeping him upright (which was a perfect position for a second shot) he was shot in the back of his neck. If he didn't have the incident back in the 1940's which caused him to wear a back brace he would have been able to escape the event with only a fatal blow and survived which would have changed the future of America and the outcome of the Cold war that was happening at the time and the events with Martin Luther King's death. Even writing this has changed the outcome of my life as the butterfly effect works from large to small events as no matter how small of an action or deed the outcome will have a big effect.
My reasons to research this theory/ topic is because I believe it has a huge role in the topic of Nuclear war within the cold war, more specifically the Cuban missile crisis as one small event would have caused a nuclear war between the USSR and America. As my work will be based on that time and the effect that if a single thing was out of place that lead to nuclear war.
The cold war
1947 - 1991
The cold war was as it is, a war with extreme tension but no war or military involved. The famous known records of a cold war 1947 -1991. Tension grew within the allies that involved America, Britain and Russia (known at the time USSR.) the cause of tension grew over time through the allies meeting up three times during world war two to discuss and plan what to do to stop the nazi's and what to do after winning the war. With the USSR and America having tension between each other with the ideas of communism vs capitalism but what put it in motion was what the allies had planned for the future of germany after the downfall of Hitler. With Germany being split through communism and capitalism. Severual events took place within the cold war which I think would be more usefull to take note down and explain the event and how it shaped the future and what would happen is a small key point was changed so it would strongly link to the butterfly effect.
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The Yalta Conference: This conferance was taken place Febuary 2nd until the 11th in 1945. The three main powers attended such as Winton churchill, FDR (Roosavelt) and Starlin as they met up in Yalta to discuss how to fix the world within post war europe after the damage that was the second world war. Starlin had before had an alliance with Hitler but it was broken in 1939 when Hitler and the nazi's invaded the solviet union resulting to Starlin working with Britan and the USA in 1941 to team up against Germany (The two capitalist groups worked together with the communist because they all had a common enemy: Adulf Hitler.)
Now, what happened within the Yalta Conference was the devision of europe, there where heavy agreements and disagreements within the meetings. It was Agreed that Germany would be broken up into four sections as the western side was controlled by the United States, Britan and France as the Eastern side was controlled by the USSR (The capital which was Berlin was also seperiated but was seen as a small part of capitalisam in the middle of the red sea)
What if Hitler never invaded the Soviet Union? It would have led to the USSR working alongside Germany during the world war which could have cancelled out the cold war as a whole and maybe a Nazi and communist dominated world.
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Winston Churchill's"Iron Curtain Speech": Once Churchill was voted out of power as Britain's Priminister he went around Universities in America and made powerful speeches. With the tension going on between America and the USSR, (Truman vs Starlin) the soviet union started to collect Satellite states which were countries that acted like a sponge to protect Russia from any invasions. Churchill was invited to Missouri to make a speech to college students and his intentions for the infamous speech was to bring a closer relationship between the USA and Britan- “English-speaking world.” Within his speech he spoke of the satellite states as “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”
Starlin's responce to the speech was referring Chruchill to Hitler and saying his speech was “war mongering,”
An image of Truman and Churchill making their way to the college to make the speech.
This is a video of Churchill's speech.
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Cuba Taken Over By Fidel Castro: Castro was leading a group to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista that was in power. With Cuba becoming Communist, America had the fear that Cuba would make an alliance with China or even worse the USSR and with the Nuclear arms race in action the tension was rising.
This is very important for Cuban missile crisis that ends up almost leading to a nuclear war. With Castro taking over the following 3 years (1959-1961) lead up to one of the key points within the cold war as it brought up the highest tension and a single wrong thing would have resulted in a hot war that would have badly damaged the world. America would have to be very cautious knowing that missile launches could happen.
Fulgencio celebrated the new year with very powerful political parties and other social leaders without knowing that his time was running out with Castro and his revolutionary army ready to change Cuba for the best. As Castro went around Cuba to make speeches about freedom and the future of Cuba white doves landed on his shoulder and related to belief it meant that he was going to be the man that will help Cuba rise in status and bring hope from the dictatorship that was at the very front lines of their country.
Nuclear arms race
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Why do countries hold these weapons such as "Fat Man" which was plutonium implosion weapon (used against Nagasaki in world war two) when they know they cannot enable it in war?
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how many people were killed from only two bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? 94,000 injured and 105,000 dead.
It all starts with an atom, an atom is a basic unit of matter that consists a dense centre nucleus that's surrounded by negative electrons. Atoms are everywhere and they build up everything, Atomic science began centuries ago on experimenting with atoms. "Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion" - Democritus
In 1940 President Roosevelt organised a national defence research comity where he had the intentions to develop an atomic bomb for defence so no one would attack America in the fear of their country being destroyed ( He received a letter from einstein informing him that Germany had the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb and that America should make one in defence). After 5 long years, July 1945 an atomic bomb was completed and merely a few days later they tested the bomb out at new Mexico. The new weapon was used for its purpose as it "little boy" was dropped onto Hiroshima, japans seventh largest city. within moments of the bomb falling half of the city vanished and left behind shadows on side walks.
Not long after the Little man bomb was dropped, "Fat man" was dropped on Nagashima.
After this tragic events, it was obvious that those with more nuclear weapons had more power over everyone else. The USSR saw this as a threat as during the conferences between Britan, USA and USSR, Starlin felt as those he was threatened by the USA and their democracy. the USSR began doing their own research into nuclear bombs to intimidate America.
After world war two the US kickstarted long-range missiles, they did this by 1946 where the US hired a german scientist to work on it.
On august 29 1949 the Soviet Union Lunch its first nuclear bomb test which showed the downfall of Americans monopoly of atomic weaponry, the soviet Union was still a long way from the US and their technology.
During the 1950's both sides had enough atomic weapons to launch a devastating attack. With both sides having a large number os long and short range missiles and atomic bombs to cause tension around Cuba as the USSR and Castro made an alliance, and Russia wanted to plant its short-range missiles on cuba which
was close to America (90 miles from Florida.) The USSR wanted missiles there because the US had short-range missiles in Turkey and Italy. This was the Cuban Missle Crisis which was in the centre of the Nuclear arms race. When the Cuban crisis was hitting its boiling point an American U-2 spy plane was spotted around the borders of the Soviet Union, thinking it was a jet carrying an Atomic bomb, the Soviets scrambled several MiG fighter jets in response dispatching two F-102 fighters armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. The U-2 plane moved out of the Soviet's borderline and manage to risk a Hot war as the following day President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would find a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile.
The effects of an Atomic bomb/ Nuclear radiation
hiroshima/ Nagasaki
at the 6th of august 1945 ( 72 years ago) during the end stages of world war two, the US performed the first ever nuclear attack in history on japan. Three days later a more powerful bomb was dropped not far from the first city, the bombs were severe enough and damaging that Japans emperor had no other choice but to surrender.
The blinding light from the bomb surfaced an initial temperature 600 degrees celsius and everything within one mile radius of the atomic bomb was completely obliterated that left the cities to ruins and appear like wastelands as 80,000 citizens were killed instantly. Many of the survivors were trapped in rubble or burning buildings died when there was no hope for help reaching them. A lot of survivors come out with radiation burns or even blindness from looking at the blinding light made from the bombs drop. The piolet that dropped the bomb looked down at the ruins and said "My god, what have we done" with the idea of the destruction that was placed on Japan by him. That who took part in the attack had no clue of the aftermath of the atomic bombs until newspapers released photos of victims with burns and life changing injuries. The realisation of what a nuclear attack could do was realised onto the world. Those unaffected by the bomb would soon have side effects as the radiation made its way across the country. The side effects of radiation exposure were nausea, hair loss and bleeding. The long-term effects were damaged retina's, tumors and the increase of the acceptability to leukaemia as the mutation started to mutate the DNA. The most haunting thought is that 69% of those harmed by the attack was 9 years of age or younger.
"When you have to deal with a beast, You have to treat him like a beast" - President Truman.
​"I made one mistake in my life... When I signed the letter to president Roosevelt recommending that Atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them first" - Albert Einstein five months before his death in 1955
Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that happened 26th April 1986. It holds first place as one of the most serious and well-known nuclear accident in history. In April 1988, the man who led the Chernobyl investigation was found hanged at his home near Moscow, two years on that day since the explosion. How the event should have gone was a straight forward test but turned into an unimaginable tragedy. Around the time, the Soviet union kept the risks of nuclear classified so no one really had a clue what would happen if it went wrong, as far as the men in control of the power station "soviet nuclear were flawless." The testing took a whole hour as alarming signs was showing during the end of the testing from the nuclear at stable to unstable within seconds which resulted in the team shutting down the reactor as a safety measure. After shutting down the reactor it blew up ripping through the building and letting radiation out. A nuclear reactor at Chernobyl carries 20 times more the nuclear than an atomic bomb and thousands and tonnes of highly radioactive graphite and that was escaping the reactor which injured and killed many workers within the plant. It was ordered less, travels through most materials and it takes life in silence. There have been reports of seeing bloody footprints on the floor from those who have died. It was absolute horror watching their work colleagues faces burn with an invisible fire before them.
The effects of exposure to Nuclear Radiation:
Dizzyness
Vomiting
Sensitive tissues (tongue for example) begin to swell
Skin blackens
cells within the body begins to break down
DNA transforms/ mutates
After the evets of Chernobyl the town became a ghost town still radiating with radiation with mutated plant life that resinds there.
The effects of propaganda
Propaganda is normally used in a form of persuasion towards citizens in order to make them look at a political situation a certain way, mostly biased. Popular use of propaganda has been used throughout history and more commonly in the 20th century. With the use of woman's rights with posters, to the cold war with Disney videos, it was the the government's way of controlling its people. The most common outcome of Propaganda is the change of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the audience which would normally benefit the government in a way such as more volunteers stepping up to join the army or that all communists are evil. Modern propaganda involves around the development of media throughout the years: radio, posters, door to door, films, video clips, television, advertisement through the internet, speeches and many more that'll reach out and change the views of the citizens to be on the governments side with the situation at hand. With the power of the media many people have become susceptible to it.
Dune Effect
The movie Dune (1984) which is where the name Dune came from--which explains that those who control and have access to media have access to and potential control of public opinion. The movie brought on the name due to the effects of control which can be related to the use of propaganda.
Modern propaganda
A powerful popular advert that was used across the uk to highlight the immigration issue in Europe to hopefully change everyone views on it.
In the modern day all around the world, Propaganda is seen everywhere whether its controlled by the government or any local companies, it's practically inescapable. It's going around being called advertising when that is a heavy debate upon its self. How modern propaganda works is either name calling and giving out stereotypes, words such as values or morals or even heart which is making the viewer think about the situation they are in. Relating to common people which are normally in large numbers and easy to connect to as a whole, the idea is that it'll suck them in as a whole. A good way to avoid being lured in is to look at the propaganda and think about who made this, who is behind this and what is their goal here.
with modern propaganda being more visual it's easier to trip people with a presentation, for example, a video spreads around in television during adverts and talks about a new health risk or global climate change and an audience member would believe them and trust them just because of presentation even if he didnt need to show proof of his profession.
Artists
James Rosenquist
James is one of the most known artists to create protagonists work in the pop-art movement. In his early years he made a living painting billboards which showed to be useful in his later works as when the pop art movement blew up. He had the skills of painting large scale images and he brought it into the pop art movement with usage of advertisement and propaganda at the time.
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"They [art critics] called me a Pop artist because I used recognizable imagery. The critics like to group people together. I didn't meet Andy Warhol until 1964. I did not really know Andy or Roy Lichtenstein that well. We all emerged separately." - James on about his involvement in the pop art movement.
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His works always had bright primary colours that indicated warmth and happiness, a sense of home along with bright reconcilable images from super markets. Its obvious that these inspiration came from past work James did on paining billboards. All of his collage work shows how bright pop art is and how the time (1960's) had powerful advertisement that was new after the dull packages that the 1940's and the 1950's brought after the second world war.
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I chose to study James because his influence on propaganda and pop art as a whole would be key for my projects related to the research of an atomic war.
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert is an American artist and graphic painter, his early works anticipated the pop-art movement as a whole with his combine painting works which involved photography and print works. He is a sculpture, painter and used those skills to give his work texture and contrasting features that were woven together. His work is interesting as there is a lot going on and more than one thing to focus on, the colours switch between bright and eye catching to earthy tones.
His goal was to make his audience to feel at home around his work knowing and being familiar with his work by reflecting life, he tried his best to hardly be separate from his art and not use brushes to be too far from it. He has always been involved with creativity since he was very young but by the time Artists wasn't really known as at the time it was publicly known that to be an artist you had to go to France to become and Artists officially.
With his work white painting, he was exploring what does it mean to be art by using size and proportional as an artform itself, from this work he got a lot of backlash from the wrong idea, people thinking that he was stating that "art was easy."
"Curiosity can be the most important energy that any creative person could have"
here his work has a mixture of different images within one which can bring together the struggle of the economy at the current time.
Alphonse Mucha
Mucha was a Czech Art Nouveau painter who produced many works around illustrations, posters. His early graphical artwork took interest of the world spreading from Europe to Asia.
By an early age, he was inspired by traditional folk law of the community where he was brought up, with education given to him and his siblings and it was said he was gifted within the arts and his stepmother encouraged his talent by tying a pencil around his neck and encouraged him to draw on anything within the house.
His first well-known work was advertised for a play called Gismonda by Victorien Sardou. The poster got him and this work much attention, Bernhardt (The actor within the play) was so satisfied with the success of this first poster that she began a six-year contract with Mucha.
This work here to the left is called 'job cigarettes.' The work has great detail from the border to the strands of the hairs. This works colour palette has earthy tones making the whites of the smoke contrast and stand out relating to the advertisement of the cigarettes. There is hardly any tone/gradation within the work as it is rather flat apart from the subjects skin tone which ranges from reds and browns making her, herself pop out and contrast with the overall image. There is harmony within the work using the golden ratio but the key areas of the image doesn't fit within the line of intrest within the rule of 3rds (eyes, hands ect).
Shepard Fairey
Fairey is a contemporary street artist and illustrator who is infamous around the world for his 'hope' work of ex-president of america Obama.
Fairey is a revolutionary artist who creates works various ways through wood, screenprints and street art and his running motivation is "The real message behind most of my work is 'question everything.' My favorite work is his anti-war work which is vibrant in red, black and yellow. They are done through screenprinting and the simplicity bright colours, flatness and order within the work makes it stand out. The overall message is to spread the word of peace and that war. I think influenced this work is the war, the Afghanistan war and with the whole idea of peace is the true revolutionary route to take. This could also be based around the Vietnam war which happened around the 1970's and since it was the first war shown to the public it made the mass citizens against the whole idea of war.
The line is powerful in this work, it works in colours also, the black line gives the work life and a sense of what is really happening. The lines are thick and are created in a shadow effect. The colours are bold and are made to stand out from up close and from a distance catching the audience to the message made clear. The contrast here is made with the bright red helping the yellow more mellow and the black more vibrant.
Andy Warhol
Andy was a leading figure in the pop art movement who experimented with expression, celebrities, and advertisement in a pop fashion that was iconic during the 1960's. He created many artworks through mediums such as hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music. One of his works were of cokecola bottles and this is what he has to say about that: "What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."
The advertisement was an important medium for him as it was something everyone knew and he could communicate his art through that and through that he was able to move from social outcast to one of the most influential artists in the 20th century.
The 32 Campbell's Soup Cans is an interesting art piece as it turns a simple thing as a can of soup into an art form that would be repeated across the wall.
Paul Butler
Paul is a contemporary Canadian artist who uses overlaying collage and it can be described at outside, and in between as within the work, there is another work that could lead to a narrative. What I think is interesting about his work is the depth within it and removing the key subjects within the image to reveal another figure behind it.
In some cases, his work has a high contrast like the first image on the left so you can make out both figures but the other image on the left it's hard to make out the other figure with the clashing of the same colours and shapes crashing through. There is no harmony within this work along with the golden ratio or with the rule of three but with the subject being dead within the center it still draws in intrest.
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