Simulated Histories. Visible Language, vol. 28 no. 4; 1995

An examination of the ways in which activism, as visual language, politically promotes cultural identity, particularly for groups overcoming an “ahistorical” identity.

Of all the visual considerations the activist must promote, the most crucial is the legibility of the group’s identity. The public must be able to associate an event with a particular political pressure group, and thus must be able to perceive some degree of “difference” about them, whether real or contrived. Activism compels a shifting scheme of social imagery; initially that which the pressure group engenders, and subsequently that with which society characteristically responds. A sociologically motivated design process is set into motion in which the visual equation of identity reveals the power of text and image to influence the historical record.