For my piece I wanted to shed light on the conspiracy of government cheese. During the midpoint critique my first idea was based around the conspiracy theory of Walt Disney being frozen within his statue at Disney World, I decided to change this due to want to pick something little more based on deep conspiracies based within the government. A conspiracy turned reality, for years there has been talk about secret caves that the government have built to preserve dairy. During the 1970s, the US experienced a dairy shortage and President Jimmy Carter implemented a policy to help the dairy industry. This led to overproduction and the government purchased large amounts of cheese to keep prices low and prevent the dairy industry from collapsing. Starting off as just a conspiracy, this information was let out to the public in the 1980's. For my concept I wanted to emphasize the way many people would view "cheese caves", to do this I put sharp dripping cheese from the ceilings and workers gathering multiple pieces of cheese wheels.
Cites
https://www.cntraveler.com/galleries/2011-12-09/five-cheese-caves-open-for-visitors
AI
https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/tools/image-fx
Adobe Generative AI
Personal
Two workers at the bottom
This is a ‘Fake It’ composite made by Ashton Lucas. There seems to be a cave environment with wheels of cheese as the main focus. Crowds of people are viewing this cheese, but one figure standing above the rest. From the GIF, I can tell the artist added dripstone looking shapes above them too. Proportion and scale are on point, but the lighting seems to be a little off, given that very bright spotlight in the center. There is a mysterious and unsettling tone coming from this image. Leading me to believe this is something we are not supposed to see. Reference links were also provided for the source images.
ReplyDeleteTo expand on this, all of these elements point to a conspiracy about cheese, as it is the main focus. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is going on due to not being knowledgeable about this theory specifically. Leading me to questions about why is there so much cheese in this cave? My first thoughts after seeing the crews and the mysterious leader on the left is the theft or hiding away of large amounts of cheese. There are no visual cues suggesting that the cheese is being made or tested on, just being stored for some greater purpose.
After reading the artists concept, this composition makes a lot more sense. These are people working for the government, putting together these cheese caves in order to preserve largely produced cheese. To strengthen this concept, I think adding government symbols, like an American flag, somewhere could really help pinpoint who’s running these operations and help guide us to this conspiracy you’re referencing. Technically, the composite is believable but it would be interesting to see an extension of the dripping sharp cheddar, to be seen all around the cave. Also, I would try to better match the lighting in the original photo and ramp up the light hitting the cheese wheels. This would also help draw our attention to the cheese instead of the man on the left who has brighter light around him. All in all, this fits what the project is asking us to do, but it could always be pushed further to emphasize key details. Additionally, this concept does address misinformation regarding what the government may be hiding or funding.
The conspiracy event that this composite is referencing is fairly recent, only going back to the 1980s. The artist seems to be curating misinformation mainly around isolated events like the cheese market. Being fairly recent would spark some conversation socially about how many people “knew” this was going on or even culturally on our views of preservation of cheese. Notably, this also pokes at the ideas of government control, spending, and funding that is not revealed to the public. Say this image were to go viral, many people would already begin to question what else is going on behind the scenes. Misinformation like this that seem harmless and small-scale can quickly get people talking about the bigger picture around politics. Therefore, it is important that social media platforms do their best to filter these false truths in order to protect the public and the government.
In conclusion, this composite addresses an isolated conspiracy surrounding the governments preservation of cheese in caves. The composition overall is visually appealing and dramatic, most importantly believable to a degree. Some areas of the lighting can emphasize this as well as the addition of government symbols to hint at who these people are and not be so vague. The concept definitely can stir up lighthearted conversation about this discovery of cheese caves. However, it can quickly take a turn and become a more serious discussion about the government and what they may be hiding and funding out of the public eye. This in turn shows us how important it is to filter misinformation to protect the safety of others and especially people in power.