Propaganda for Thinking

"Propaganda that stimulates thinking, in no matter
what field, is useful to the cause of the
oppressed.
Such propaganda is very much needed. Under
governments which serve to promote exploitation,
thought is considered base." - Bertolt Brecht

This course will be divided into two parts. The
first half of the semester we will look at
propaganda through an expanded lens. We will ask
when and why does propaganda arise, with what
means and toward what end? We will not only read
into, analyze, and critique that which is clearly
identified as propaganda, but we will also look at
artworks, essays, poems, and gestures as vehicles
of manipulation.
We will look at propaganda as an ambivalent act,
and as a possibility within our practices. The
second half of the semester we will individually
or in groups establish an urgent truth and
materialize it. We will enter a process of
iteration and critique, mutually aiding each
other's projects. The class will end with a
presentation of what was made, and it will be
discussed with a newfound vocabulary around the
formal possibilities of propaganda.