Propaganda — SungryulJun

Experiments

Propaganda : Visual Experiments

Mixed Media, 2023

This work is based on my experience observing North Korean propaganda buildings during my two years of military service at Panmunjom. The primary purpose of most propaganda buildings is to display power. A clear example of this is the repeated construction of taller flagpoles to outdo one another. These structures are often designed with a singular purpose: to extend height, built with simple steel beams for that objective alone.

This phenomenon is not exclusive to the divided Korean peninsula. In modern society, where direct physical conflict is often subdued, constructing large and tall buildings has become the most effective way to represent the power of a community. Structures like the Berlin TV Tower, South Korea's Lotte Tower, and the World Trade Center in the U.S. serve as symbolic landmarks of their respective cities.

I first analyzed vertically-oriented propaganda buildings by breaking them down into three structural forms. I then reinterpreted these forms to create a silhouette of the structure. Additionally, I added a mass that covers everything except the top, reflecting how people perceive propaganda buildings. When we look at skyscrapers in cities, we tend to ignore the lower sections. As previously mentioned, these symbolic buildings derive their contextual power from their height, naturally drawing attention to their upper sections.

Therefore, I created digital & physical images of modern and future propaganda/skyscrapers by covering everything but the tip, leaving only the part of the structure that society chooses to focus on.

Propaganda structures can be largely divided into walls, panopticons, watch towers, and guard points.

Also, the characteristics of the propaganda structure are as follows.

As in the first work, I tried to play through the objects. At this time, among various experiments, the most interesting shape was selected.

Furthermore, it was found again that structures of the type of propaganda / symbolic structures. we encounter obsess over the peak of height.

Therefore, an experiments were conducted to cover the remaining structures except for the peak structure.

Vailed One World Trade Center, Ditigal mockup