Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

Levin, S., Van Laar, C., and Sidanius, J. (2003). The effects of ingroup and outgroup friendships on ethnic
attitudes in college: A longitudinal study. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 6 (1), 76-92.
Plant, E.A., Devine, P. G. (2003). The antecedents and implications of interracial anxiety. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(6), 709-8.
Rodenborg, N. & Huynh, N. (2006). On overcoming segregation: Social work and intergroup dialogue. Social
Work With Groups, 29(1), 27-44.
Shin, R. (in press), “Promotion of ethnic and cultural identity through the arts and material culture among
immigrant Koreans.” In A. Arnold, E. Delacruz, A. Kuo, & M. Parsons (Eds.), Globalization, Art and
Education. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.
Stephan, W. G., & Stephan, C. W. (1985). Intergroup anxiety. Journal of Social Issues, 41, 157-175.
Tatum, B. D. (2000). Defining racism: ‘Can we talk?’ In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, C. Castañeda, H. W.
Hackman, M. L. Peters, & X. Zúñiga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice: An anthology on
racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (pp. 79-82). New York: Routledge.
Memory and Erasure: Applying Visual Narrative Power Analysis to the Image War Between
Dow Chemical and the Women of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
Carolyn Erler, Texas Tech University
This research presentation analyzes a successful branding campaign by Dow Chemical and a select group of
counter ads and visual tactics deployed by the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. The focus is not
on the artwork, but on the soft power of images, stories, and actions in the battle for control of the story. Visual
narrative power analysis, a method developed by the activist group smartMeme, shows how dominant stories
are shaped by money and influence, although challengers occasionally can and do break through. One such
challenger began as a small group of mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and grandmothers who survived the
deadly gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on the night of December 3 rd , 1984. In 2000, the Dow
Chemical Corporation purchased Union Carbide. The small group of survivors from Bhopal became the
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, a broad coalition of groups and organizations whose intelligent
campaign of direct actions and visual tactics threatened Dow Chemical’s constructed identity as an ethically
responsible company. Such tactics have included hunger strikes in photogenic spots such as Wall Street,
large-scale performances such as the Jhadoo Maro Dow Ko, or Hit Dow with a Broom campaign, in which
women in all parts of the world symbolically hit Dow by presenting its executives with jhadoos (brooms) from
Bhopal, and speaking tours of women survivors around the U.S. and Canada.
Through the jhadoo protests, women demonstrated as mothers admonishing an undisciplined child, affirmed
their humanity as mothers, sisters, and daughters, and in at least one way, restored order to a world turned
upside-down by mass death and indifference to justice. Notably, the story gives women the upper hand as
authors of their own story and guardians of a more just humanity.
Students for Bhopal (SfB), a network of students who advocate for the disaster survivors, have waged image
warfare on Dow since 2001. Their specialty is hijacking and subverting corporate imagery to spark social
critique and critical dialogue. In its subversion of the Human Element magazine ad, for example, the SfB
changed the text over Pablo Bartholomew’s iconic news photograph of a dead child half buried in the ashes of
the chemical accident from “Hu” to “Inhuman.” The ad’s layout and design perfectly mimics Dow’s.
Evidence that the ICJB may be winning the battle of the story came with the Indian government’s August 8,
2008, announcement that it would meet many of the demands of the survivors of the 1984 pesticide plant
explosion in Bhopal. The government vowed to take legal action on the civil and criminal liabilities of Union
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