Media is always related to the politic, so as art.

In the article The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction it discusses when art becomes a reproductional propaganda such as Dadaism being an anti-aesthetic movement or how Fascism and Communism using art work as a tool to spread its value. And in The Medium is the Message it told us the content of any medium is another medium. I think they are both suggesting a concept: in this reproduction era, art is a kind of medium (and can be reproduce for a large amount quickly) which may includes information that the audience or common people may not notice the message which is hidden from the form of art performance.

The concept of hidden message presenting with art makes me thinking of those material such as posters on the streets, illustration in the newspaper and text book, images on the stamps, etc. in the North Korea, China and previous USSR. Those kind of “art work” are technically done with perfect skill, they are really nice pieces if you ignore the figures, the backgrounds and the ideologies they are implying.

I am not trying to be mean toward the obviously failed outdated socialism. In contrast, the similar thing is happening around us too. The pop-out advertisements in mobile phone apps, the deal suggestions in the margin of the browser, the commercials behind the homerun walls, the fancy brands on a gorgeous character in movies… Yes, we are living in a democratic realm, and instead of being brainwashed by government like those dictator countries, our dictator is big corporations. Ironically and apparently, the relationship in between big corporations and government is really well-connects.