Genocide Poster Project

 

The purpose of this project was to either memorialize a genocide that occurred, or compare/relate a current conflict with a genocide that has already occurred in history. In order to do this accurately we had to do a lot of background research. In World History we studied the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Bosnian Genocide. In Language Arts, we read a book about either the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Bosnian Genocide, or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The book I read was about the Armenian Genocide. Not only did I learn more about events that occurred during the genocide, I also saw the personal experience of someone who survived the genocide. Although it’s hard to hear that 2 million people were killed by their own government, it’s harder to witness someone’s family, life, and dreams be ripped apart. Through this research we were able to have a much better understanding of the people, places, and environments in which these events occurred. We also learned the value of having individuals, groups, and/or institutions that are willing to take action. After we had learned all these things about the conflicts we had to create a poster that would fulfill the purpose of the project (to either memorialize a genocide that occurred, or compare/relate a current conflict with a genocide that has already occurred in history). The main product we created was a poster. The poster had to include a statistic related to the conflict we chose, a source for the statistic, a slogan, and an image to go on the poster. In Language Arts we learned how to create symbols and use imagery to tell a story. We also learned and got critique on slogans we created. We learned that slogans should be relatively short and to the point. We then reviewed some basic grammar (i.e. capitalization) to ensure that all the information on our poster had good grammar. Finally, we learned and got critique our layouts for the poster. We learned that there should be some sort of path for the eye to follow in a logical way. This way, the viewer doesn’t get confused with the content and image in the poster. The statistic we used was “1,500,000 Armenian people were killed in the Armenian Genocide.” Because many people (including me before this project) have never heard about the Armenian Genocide. We felt it was important for people to know just how many people died in this horrific event in history. The biggest challenge for me in this project was coming up with what image we were going to put on the poster. I am not very good at being creative or coming up with new ideas. I have a hard time thinking outside the box. I overcame this challenge by talking with my partner and being persistent. My partner did have some cool ideas. His cool ideas helped me start thinking and coming up with my own ideas. The key was that I didn’t give up when I couldn’t think of anything. Because I was persistent I was able to succeed. The most successful moment in this project for me was when we were done with our poster. It was really cool to see our ideas come together and come to life.

 

The biggest things I learned in this project were the 8 stages of genocide and the value of talking with others to come up with new ideas. The 8 stages of genocide are the steps to a genocide. Just because the first few steps have happened doesn’t mean that there will automatically be a genocide. These are just signs. The 8 stages are: classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial. If you would like to learn more about each of these categories please visit this website. After creating the posters, we had an auction to sell these posters in order to raise money for UNICEF, which is a United Nations lead organization to help children in countries that are impoverished or involved in wars. This way, other people who I will probably never meet will be helped because of my work. This whole project has benefited me greatly. I am so much more aware about the terrible things that have happened in the past and the terrible things happening right now, like the conflict in the Congo. This has helped me realize that I really want to help people in countries that are going through very difficult times. The quality I used the most in this project is communication. Simply put, communication is being able to express an idea or information to another person. This can be through speaking, writing, pictures, etc. In our poster, we thought long and hard about what we wanted to communicate about the Armenian Genocide and how we would do that.. We decided to focus on the fact that the Armenian Genocide still isn't recognized as a genocide by the government of Turkey, the country in which it occured. We used words themselves and then used a website to create a picture out of the words we wanted to say. I think it turned out very well and communicates a clear message.