“Propaganda is very aware and alert to public opinion and public mood. It responds to that. It draws on what our existing hopes, fears,values, and prejudices might be.”
Ian Cooke, co-curator of 'Propaganda: Power and Persuasion'
Ian Cooke, co-curator of ‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion’

In the run-up to #BloomsburyFest 2013, we are sharing a series of blog posts offering a sneak peak at this year’s line-up of performances, events, talks and workshops hosted by the School of Advanced Study.

In this post we introduce Ian Cooke, who along with Sue Woods (BFI) will lead an exploration of public information films from the last 70 years. Ian is the Lead Curator in International Studies and Politics at the British Library and is co-curator of the Propaganda: Power and Persuasion exhibition that concludes on September 17, 2013.

We spoke to Ian about his experiences in putting together the exhibition, the nature of propaganda, and what we can expect from him during the Bloomsbury Festival.

In his own words, “What we’re hoping to do is to delve into some of the history of how public opinion and tastes change over those 70 years and maybe do a little bit of audience interaction to work out if we have the same reactions as we did when they were first shown.”

We will release the full interview and Storify early next week. More information about this event is available here.

The Bloomsbury Festival runs from October 15-20, 2013. The full schedule of events at the School of Advanced Study is available here. We are also running a series of exciting competitions in October. Follow us on @SASNews for festival news and updates.