Chitra Gopalakrishnan “Myths get thought in man unbeknownst to him” — Claude Lévi-Strauss I am interested in a way where mythology could be applied to social systems. On what drives people to do the things they do and what keeps them on the edge of sanity and civil behaviour. I am keen to explore areas of tension that exist between opposing forces and the point when they swap places. With a daily unleashing of terrorist activities around the globe, each time I react with immense pity towards both the innocent victims and the armed attackers. The condition of the inflictor is at par with that of the inflicted: they are both subjects of a bigger more complex man-made disaster that leaves them both equally shattered and irreparably damaged. Since the premise of graphic design is to channel thought in a prescribed direction, mythology seems, to me, an interesting tool that indexes and organizes perceptions of reality. The argument linking structuralism and mythology is based on the fact that myths serve the need of a people to better understand, reconcile and rework the socio-political scene they live within.(1) By (standing on the shoulders of giants and) understanding the nuances within mythology, I hope to have a better grasp on the role of the designer/artist as one that contributes and affects the way a society thinks and hopefully, heals. (1)...the details of the myth matter less than the underlying structure. It strives to be the invariant, the common denominator among superficial differences. This invariant is how the mind perceives and copes with reality. As the audience becomes familiar with the narrative the structure subtly resolves in the unconscious the conflicts perceived by the conscious. |