Gas Mask on Street Art as a Tool for Sociopolitical Change
Research on how objects are capable of influencing people to participate in taking social action. How and why do objects contribute to or even initiate civil, sociopolitical changes?
People tend to easily associate certain objects, symbols, signs, and photographs with specific influential social events.
Especially in the last decade, objects seem to have become powerful tools for society and politics. The pro-democracy umbrellas in Hong Kong, Gay Pride Flags in United States, the Guy Fawkes masks in the Occupy Wall Street Movement could be considered as the explicitly shared examples of objects that drive people to participate in social actions in the last few years. Comprehending this relationship between objects and influential social events still seems like a mystery to solve, and discuss further.
How and why do objects contribute to or even initiate civil, sociopolitical changes? This article will therefore, further investigate objects’ contributions to, and their initiation of sociopolitical changes by looking at the gas mask object and the street art that overlaps with gas masks.
It will do so by discussing it through psychological, sociological, political and artistic areas. The objective of the paper is first to analyze if the idea of the object of a gas mask could have the capability to motivate people to take action and second, to determine the process of conceptualization that occurs with the object and social movements. It would not only matter for the sake of comprehending complex human behaviors but also could be used as a new viewpoint to talk about how easily but collectively people are influenced by their external world. The research would disentangle how in psychosocial basis humans are influenced by objects, in this case street arts to create resistance and how those objects become part of that change.
Background Context on Gezi Park Protests
Looking at street art examples in countries that have recent political uprisings such as Turkey, and objects that are associated with rebellion like the gas mask would be essential to unravel the social puzzle. The Gezi Park protests started in 2013 in response to a redevelopment plan for Istanbul’s Taksim Square, where the government intended to privatize one of the most known open, public parks by turning it into a shopping center. After the government used force against the occupiers and the protestors on the 31st May 2013, this turned into a revolutionary social movement in Turkey that went against the government. As the number of protesters increased, police under the influence of the government started utilizing an armored water cannon vehicle called TOMA that intervened in social protests by violently spraying water with a pepper spray substance against the public. As a reaction to this people began to wear and distribute gas masks for their own safety. The protests that initiated under the name of the park transformed into a protest against the police’s excessive use of force towards the public. It could be stated that the ones who create this process of protests and influence people to join are going to be referred as the “change makers” throughout the research paper. In this process of protests, the object of the gas mask and street art — such as wall arts, signs or other politically oriented arts — that came with the depiction of the gas mask became a symbol for the revolt of Gezi Park. The research aims to understand: how did the link between gas mask and protests occur and how could the creation of this association have led to change in social basis?
Social Lives of Objects
Janet Hoskins claims that “Things have social lives” (74), and the social life of objects contributes to peoples’ own social relationships and the social events they encounter.
To fully comprehend the complex associations humans form by the use of specific objects, people should first grasp how objects on their own have the essential capacity to develop. To elaborate on this, just like humans, objects too are “developing over time” (Hoskins 75). As objects begin to reappear in different environments with the integration of multiple contexts, they go through a social morph and they gain new meanings.
The object of the gas mask is still in the process of changing in meaning as it continues to reappear in multiple environments at differentiating times.
As Gabriel Moshenska claims in her discussion of the gas mask, “A gas mask is a peculiar type of object that defies categorization, bridging several classes of material culture.” (611).
Using the idea that gas masks are objects that reject rigid categorizations. As unconventional as it may seem, we can understand from their rejection of categorizations that, gas masks are not inanimate beings as they initially had been thought to be. Rather, they are animate things that continue to change in meaning.
“Originally devised to protect soldiers, gas masks are now used in (…) civil obedience, historical artefacts. In these very different contexts they can be defined as clothing, art objects, costumes, disguises” (Moshenska 611). This change of context and meaning that Moshenska discusses are evident in the life of gas masks as they evolve from being a tool for construction workers, to a protection method of soldiers and now a sociopolitical instrument for civil change. Protestors physically have the disposition to utilize the gas mask in the social movements to protect themselves.
For example, after the second world war people from Japan applied a new framework to gas mask that portrays protection towards the poisonous gas bombs. (Weisenfeld 181) The gas mask became materialized with their increasing distributions, but still happened to shape memories and emotions. This shows the materialistic use of the gas mask. Whereas, deriving from Moshenska’s article, the gas masks are decontextualized in people’s minds as they are utilized in civil obedience by becoming art objects too.
“Children in gas masks are also a recurring theme in the works of the graffiti artist Banksy as a symbol of air pollution, urban decay, and innocence” ( Moshenska 611), gas masks hold the power of having their own social lives with the process of gaining new labels. Even the world’s most famous graffiti artist implementing the gas mask as a symbol into his work, proves to the public that gas mask has a strong capacity of sustaining strong symbols. This placement of objects, and in this specific case the gas masks into multiple environments at different times contributes to the metaphorical plasticity of the objects. Thus, it could be interpreted that the gasmask object went through a development from material to symbolic.
Psychological Ability to Create Wider Social Actions
After understanding the changing capability of objects, it is important to analyze how the object is presented to impact the audience in order to engage them in the social resistance. With the social development of the object, the process of reconceptualization never ends; adding on to that, the qualities of the object reinforce the ability to create wider social actions.
Alongside physically wearing the gas mask in the social resistance protests, using the gas mask as a subject in street art strengthens the political capability of creating a change by adding on to the meaning that it carries. Artists form street art by utilizing visuals that could condition emotions to implement social behaviors, and mobilize people. This shows the immense impact of visuals.
Therefore, moving beyond acknowledging the objects’ capacity to mediate social reforms, one could argue that by presenting certain emotion evoking stimuli those objects become tools for social actions. Correspondingly, the features of the object make itself easier to recall and consequently, raise more awareness about the issue.
Cognitive psychology research conducted on the relationship between visuals and memory show that “Visual imagery is, for most of us, a conspicuous ingredient of everyday experience, playing a prominent role in memory” (Zeman et al. 378)
In other words, having the vivid images in the memories conserve the message that the “change makers” want to transmit. Those visual elements of street art are “produced in order to influence the thoughts and actions of others” (Hoskins 75). This idea by Hoskins of objects causing emotional responses could be applied to thoughts and actions leading to civil sociopolitical change. By using images and visuals simultaneously, street art came into the point in history to produce powerful objects.
Color and Imagery Usage in Street Arts
The colors within the visuals combined in street art form the perception of the people who encounter the object that eventually elevates action. People are previously conditioned to certain colors, and have the predisposition from previous experiences that those colors and visuals have meanings accordingly.
Using those psychologically associated colors increases the ability of the symbolic meaning of the street art to get across to the audience easily. For example, universally people associate the color white with peace and purity. In perceptual terms whiteness illuminates the image, and creates positive connotations. In contrast to white, strong colors such as black or red are easily associated with more emotionally loaded concepts such as death, blood, or violence. Knowing that “colors parallel image and message” (Chaffee 6), help the street artists to successfully implement specific colors and schemas on to their art works to create mental associations on their audiences’ minds by letting them refer back to their pre-existing schemas on color. Since artists critically pick their colors, they manage to create a platform of communication for depicting political and social problems.
Examples of “Gas Mask” Street Arts in the Protests
In the Gezi Park protests, the artists depicted the gas mask object on to the walls of Istanbul in different forms to show how wide-spread the usage of the object had become. The depiction of the gas mask objects in the street art also conveyed metaphorical messages of blocking the toxicity of politics by wearing the mask. Since physically wearing the gear to block the toxins transforms into a symbol and regains a metaphorical meaning of a barrier that criticizes the corruption of the government.
In Figure 1, the artist portrays a traditional old Turkish lady that wears a simple gas mask. Having her fist up here, manages to show her strong stance. This example could be thought as empowering the Gezi Park movement by showing everyone, even an old lady is part of the resistance and consequently, the ones who are not already in the support should also unite.
In this figure, using solid colors of black on a brown background draws attention to the white gas mask that the old lady wears. This could create a connotation with the gas mask, an object that is black in origin but presented in white, to have a hopeful, inspiring utilization.
Furthermore, artists select images and utilize slogans that are also emotionally captivating and effective. Artists carefully choose slogans and the image that they are depicting since they have a common goal: to communicate, challenge, question and elevate action.
These selection of words, colors and images contribute to the game of perception of the artists create. This game of perception allows artists to reach people with their thoughts and invite them to think about the social issue. Anonymous artists combine the gas mask image with phrases that challenge the opposing side’s use of force, and their overall political attitude.
The second figure of street art presents a whirling dervish that wears a traditional long white dress and a gas mask.
Not only to mention the white color that has a positive, illuminating connection, the artwork has the commonly known quote of Rumi:
“Come-come, whoever you are”.
It is known that the dervishes who wear the long white dress and whirl as a meditation form, are the followers of Rumi, a traditional mystic. Wisely implementing the famous saying to invite people to join the occupy movements, again, contributes to the acknowledgement of the protest’s goal — to make people question the ongoing political unrest and the excessive use of police force.
This trend of calling people to join to occupy Gezi Park with the quote from Rumi could also connect with the idea behind the street art of the old lady wearing a gas mask since they both aspire to mobilize the public.
Simultaneously, people started to construct the image on their minds as they saw the photographs, opened the television or any form of social media. Therefore, knowing that the viewers have the pre-existing knowledge and the visual of the gas-mask on their minds, the artists increasingly used the gas mask symbol on their street art to show their government challenging political views.
As it could be seen from Figure 3 and 4, the artists drew a penguin wearing a gas mask in black to draw the viewer to join the “occupy” movement, by possibly inviting him or her to challenge the view of the government too.
Here, the penguins have the significance of criticizing the televised media by referring to how certain channels of partisan media only aired a 3-part penguin documentary while they were expected to document the ongoing social protests in the country and the violence that the police utilized. This symbol of the gas mask later became a meme on different platforms of social media.
Street art crossing into different forms such as to social media, drew even more attention to what the government was trying to hide, and ironically the implications grew. From this people could see that, creating and presenting thought provoking objects could cause people take physical action that the artists intend with their meaningful depictions.
Why does making this association create a change in the society?
The association has been made with the changing nature of objects and reinforced with the impacts of visuals through street art. Yet why does making this association create a change in the society?
As people engage in the social behavior by appreciating the street art through sharing it on different mediums they show that they actually support the resistance.
Parallel to this, as the object becomes an influential factor for the social movement, the potential for people to remember the protests even years after, increases. The more people remember the object and the social movement, the more people would recall the change that is intended to be created. Therefore, the protests are not easily erased from the publics’ minds. This could help the “change makers” to create even more influence to make others to share their ideals.
The social protests initiated the coordination of various religious, political, and social groups of Turkey.
“It was the first time in Turkey that people of different backgrounds and convictions took to the streets in a spontaneous protest against the government” (Hemer 9).
Hemer’s phrase suggests that bringing people together became a form of a spontaneous protest. The object of the gas mask and street art streamed through different mediums brought those people together.
In the case of Gezi Park protests, “the protests rapidly became ‘trans-environmental’, where environmental concerns connected with issues such as a general lack of democracy, human rights violations, and economic problems” (Bilgiç 267). Deriving from this it could be interpreted that, although the protests did not aim at the resignation of the government, they had the intention to show that the voice of the people still existed and that they “had strength, coherence, and determination.” (Jasper & Polletta 288).
This could be considered as a change on a social level, since it was the first time in Turkey that groups cooperated to resist against a neo-liberal conservatism, authoritarian regime. Consequently, creating a link between the gas mask and protests to make this social change where people realized that as a nation they could be mobilized.
Objects as Tools for Making Change
While discussing how an object mobilizes people to take a role in a civic change, it is important to acknowledge that actually there are people behind the objects utilizing them to influence others in order to raise awareness, and drive them to participate in the resistance that they aspire to create.
Therefore, objects become a tool for “change makers” to make a difference in the society. The people who want others to participate in the social change use the objects to manipulate people.
Therefore, in simple terms, objects indirectly become capable to create social change. As the artists depict the gas mask object, reinforce their political message through street art and contextualize newer connotations, they manage to engage people in social behaviors. Since it became more exposed to the public through different mediums the contextualization created with the gasmask spread either consciously or unconsciously among the citizens.
Besides a naturally enfolding chain of actions, this could be argued to be a result of a propaganda since people wisely to consciously mobilize people by knowing what could influence them.
In his article on photography in New York Times, Cole indicates that images from “conflict zones” (Cole 2015) creates a political change. This is an act of propagating the war. Just like photographs from the conflict zones, an object such as the gas mask is used as a way of propagating to reach to a broader audience. The art works, physical objects remind them of the brutal force that the police utilized against the public and the affects it had. Logically, reaching to a broader audience increases the efficiency of the social influence that the “change makers” intend to create.
Theory of Behavior of Acting as a Crowd
Solving how people are influenced by objects to participate in social movements and create a broader impact on society would not be possible without understanding of acting as a crowd. Some could argue against the claim that objects are influential for the occurrence of social change by pointing out that having the power of moving along with a group creates the social change.
According to Le Bon’s theory, the behavior of acting as a crowd “is a phenomenon that could lead to radical sociopolitical transformations” (Hassan & Ibrahim 951) .
He clarifies this idea by showing how being in a group brings anonymity and decreases the responsivity that comes with it. However, what brings those people together is the power of the object that is presented. Therefore, the objects cannot be disregarded.
“With more than 35 million active Internet users, social media is big in Turkey (…) messages on Twitter and Facebook inviting people to pick up debris on the streets or paint a wall” (Shafak 2013).
The active usage of social media spread the images of people wearing masks, or street arts that integrated gas masks. Reaching to a wider community through the presentation of people wearing gas masks became a supplemental agent to involve people. Therefore, it could be derived that people are easily and collectively influenced by their external world.
The object of gas mask lived through the protests, elevated in importance with the sequence of actions and became a tool for carrying the ideas from a social resistance to a social change.The combined material and symbolic significances the gas mask carried helped the gas it to have a space in the publics’ memory.
The social movement inspired people to think that mobilization was possible and therefore created a social change in which, for the first time of the country’s history brought people from different backgrounds together for the same cause. Who could have guessed an unused gasmask waiting on a dusty market shelf could have an indirect nationwide effect?
This creates only one question: what is going to be the next social object that is going to gain a larger status in society to create change?
Works Cited
Arango, Tim et. al “Police Storm Park in Istanbul, Setting Off a Night of Chaos.”
The New York Times, 15 June 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/europe/protesters-in- turkey.html, 2013
Bilgiç, Ali. “Reclaiming the National Will: Resilience of Turkish Authoritarian Neoliberalism
after Gezi.” South European Society and Politics Journal, Volume 23, Issue 2, 2018,
pp. 259–280. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bu/detail.action?docID=5049936.
Chaffee, Lyman G., and Bernard K. Johnpoll. Political Protest and Street Art:
Popular Tools for Democratization in Hispanic Countries. Greenwood Press, 1993, https://books.google.com/books?id=JgB3UTNAOAIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false
Cole, Teju. “Object Lesson.” The New York Times Magazine, March 17 2015,
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/magazine/object-lesson.html. 2015
Cowick, Carmen. “Preserving Street Art: Uncovering the Challenges and Obstacles.”
Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries of North America, Vol 34, No 1, Spring 2015, pp. 29–44,JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/680563.
Crowder, Nicole. “Iconic Symbols of Modern-day Protests”. The Washington Post in Sight, October 2 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2014/10/02/
the-things-they-carried-iconic-symbols-of-modern-day-protests/
Hassan Rasha, Ibrahim Yasser. “A Revolutionary Crowd Model.”Simulation,
Vol 93, 2017, pp. 951–971. https://journals-sagepub-
com.ezproxy.bu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/0037549717702722. 2017
Hemer, Oscar, et al. “In the Aftermath of Gezi: Introduction” From Social Movement to
Social Change. Springer Nature Publications, 2017, pp. 9–17.
Hoskins, Janet. “Agency, Biography and Objects.” Handbook of Material Culture. SAGE
Publications, January2006, pp. 74–84.
https://www.academia.edu/407619/Agency_Biography_and_Objects. 2006.
Jasper, James, et al. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Reviews Sociology,
Volume 27, 2001, pp. 283–305. https://www-annualreviewsorg.ezproxy.bu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.283. 2001.
Kelly, Michael. “Street Art and Graffiti.” Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2 ed.),
Oxford University Press, 2014, https://www-oxfordreference-com. 2014.
Moshenska, Gabriel. “Gas Masks: Material Culture, Memory, and the Senses.”
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Volume 16, No 3, September 2010, pp.609–628, https://www-jstor org.ezproxy.bu.edu/stable/40926125?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. 2010.
Sanders, Lewis. “Reclaiming the city: Street Art of the Revolution.”
Translating Egypt’s Revolution, American University in Cairo Press. 2012, pp. 143–182,
Tulke, Julia. Aesthetics of Crisis: Of Penguins and Tear Gas: The Street Art and Graffiti,
June 9 2013, http://aestheticsofcrisis.org/2013/of-penguins-and-tear-gas/. 2013.
Weisenfeld, Gennifer. “Gas Mask Parade: Japan’s Anxious Modernism.”
Modernism/Modernity, Vol. 21, Issue 1, January 2014, pp. 179–199. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/docview/1510564625/fulltextPDF/9FFF33CC76FB45E5PQ/1?acco untid=9676. 2014
Zeman, Adam, et al. “Lives without imagery- Congenital aphantasia.” Cortex,Volume 3, Issue 5,20 May 2015, pp. 378- 380. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279234629_Lives_without_imagery_-_Congenital_aphantasia
Citations for Images Biberci, Hazal. Gas Masked Street Art of an Old Woman. 2013 Pinterest.https://tr.pinterest.com/hazalovic/street-art-taksim-gezi-park-protest/
Boixareu, Jordi. Derviche with a Gas Mask street art. 8 June 2013, Istanbul. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-derviche-with-a-gas-mask-graffiti-on-the-walls-of-the-streets-of-istanbul-113544142.html
Genter, Nate. Penguins Wearing a Gas Mask. 6 November 2013, Istanbul.
https://www.mediamatic.net/nl/page/82594/penguin-gas-masks
Unknown artist, Penguin Wearing a Gas Mask. 2013, Istanbul
http://aestheticsofcrisis.org/2013/of-penguins-and-tear-gas/
