The hidden message of the media of entertainment – “us” and ”the others”
For our second YCR-E-Project we, the students in the 9th and 10th grades at the DSO, documented our visit on the 7th of October, 2008, to the Holocaust Center.
Through the opportunity provided to us by “The Cultural School Backpack”, a Norwegian institution providing cultural projects for students in grades 1 through 13, we were able to spend an entire school day at the Holocaust Center here in Oslo. Our History teacher, Ms. Cherubini, as well as our Art teacher, Ms. Kulbe, were our chaperones.
The day started off with a presentation held by Harald Syse. His theme was Propaganda with specific regards to today’s Pop culture.
Next were short walks through the exhibits in the Center: the permanent exhibit as well as the German touring exhibition of Leni Riefenstahl’s. Previously in art class we had had a unit focusing on “Advertisement” with the idealizing of pictures of youth in art history and advertising. Leni Riefenstahl fit many aspects of this topic.
After walking around observing, the students worked in groups on various topics. We all presented our results to each other and were impressed with the creativity that was displayed despite the limitations that were set.
We documented the process and results by filming and photographing.
The visit had its linguistic merits as well – Norwegian, German and English were all used depending on the constellation of the group. We had the entire linguistic specter that our school has to offer: Norwegians with German-as-a-foreign language, Germans with Norwegian-as-a-foreign language, Polish with German- and Norwegian-as-a-foreign language… and as the common denominator for all – English.
The project day at the Holocaust Center resulted in another encounter with Leni Riefenstahl, in particular with the documentaries: “The power of pictures” by Ray Müller as well as excerpts from “Olympia” from 1936. Prior to this we had dealt with the idealizing of pictures of youth in art history and advertising.
We, the students and teachers, were made aware of the influence of propaganda then and now in the establishing of the terms “us” and “the others”. We were Argus-eyed while watching “Borat” and “24 hours”. Propaganda did not only exist during the Third Reich but is current even today.
The project was evaluated from two different aspects in Art class: on a test the students were required to define propaganda as well as answer questions regarding the content of Syse’s presentation and the exhibits. Without exception the students were capable of defining propaganda, and the other parts of the test were answered convincingly. In addition the students were to fill out a questionnaire in which they were to evaluate the project first in its entirety and secondly with regards to the individual aspects.
They would have liked to have had more time with the exhibit and a shorter presentation. The difficulty in understanding Norwegian speeches, which during guided exhibits normally is no problem because students whisper translations to each other, is greater when conducted in plenum. The majority of the students were pleased with the group work as well as with their own and the others’ results. 
Filed under: exhibiton Tagged: | English, multilingual, project, Riefenstahl
