Title

The Black and White of Political Rhetoric

Creator

Gebhardt, Daphni

Koukouvitaki, Katerina

Abstract

The creative project explores political polarization, through a short, silent film that potrays political rhetoric as a curated performace or tragedy. Based on the "hot" affective condition of politics, we utilized ancient theatre masks, modeled after Facial Electromyography (fEMG) research, to satirize the simplification and exaggeration of political media. The themes of the film visualize mimicry based on Homan et al. (2023) and Fino et al. (2020) findings on "Schadenfreude" and the "Favorite Leader Effect." Through black and white, eerie and sharp editing the film invites the audience to question superficial "masks" of polarization and expose the manifactured nature of media.

Keywords

polarization

media

political psychology

Subject

Interdisciplinary

Date Available

May 28, 2026

Type

Video

Course

HSE/HSS 2224 Hot Politics

Course Offering Term

Spring semester 2026

Instructor

Petropoulos-Petalas, Diamantis

Session

Honors Creative Projects

Location

Student Lounge

Event

Year 2026 | 10th Annual Student Research and Creative Arts Symposium