Mike Nourse’s re-edit of President George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union Address  that focuses on the core messages of the speech. The propaganda techniques of President Bush revealed.

This work critically engages with the biases of media strategies and how propaganda is diffused through language. Combining humor and poignancy, it illuminates the mechanisms of political propaganda in the aftermath of 9/11, highlighting how the “War on Terror” narrative was constructed through rhetorical affect. By cutting and isolating fragments of Bush’s language, the piece exposes the mediated shaping of memory and emotion. Through visibly cherry-picking information to construct and expose an overarching narrative, Nourse simulates a conspiratorial logic, though one that is consciously staged and self-aware. This allows us to reflect on whether the manipulation of images and meaning by those in power differs so greatly from the speculative interpretations that flourish online. Is conspiratorial logic too simplistic? What does it omit/reveal?

Placed in conversation with the victim focused and human perspective of Helle’s History of the World Part 11, this work shows us how easily individual voices can be eclipsed in the broader media choreography of nationalism and fear. In tandem with Hattler’s Collision, the works illustrate ideological political machinery in the face of geopolitical issues. Ultimately, the work raises a central question for this video program: Is the remix more truthful than the original, or does it merely mirror the subjective constructions we attempt to critique?