Subjectio: an online storytelling project
Subjectio is an experimental online storytelling project by digital designer David Veneman and multimedia journalist Pierre Crom. They share a mutual interest in methods used by superpowers to control and manipulate the representation of the truth.
The innovative project examines influences exercised by the West and Russia in Ukraine, Moldova, Transnistria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North-Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia.
Subjectio will be gradually launched from February 26, 2020, exactly six years after Pierre Crom witnessed the very beginning of the annexation of Crimea. On March 18, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to officialize the annexation.
Pierre’s observations through Eastern and South-East Europe continued up to June 2019.
Subjectio aims to investigate the methods and techniques used by the West and Russia to steer online discussions during geopolitical conflicts.
Pierre and David explore the boundaries of storytelling using social media and crafted digital tools, uncovering the structure of disinformation and propaganda. The project is closely monitored and analysed, teaming up with an expert in disinformation and fake news.
Subjectio.org gives access to its social media accounts: Instagram for a collection of 200 photographs, Google Maps geolocating the photographs, a Youtube channel for a series of 7 video-interviews, Medium for texts giving context to the geopolitical conflicts, a page and Twitter. The content will be released according to Subjectio’s own agenda, on key dates commemorating historical and cultural events, or celebrating statehood days in the countries of interest.
Subjectio.org will be regularly updated with an analysis about the impact of the project written by Katya Kazanova a Russian linguist specialized in argumentative analysis and epistemology of propaganda.
The video-interviews give a voice to local actors such as a drummer in North-Macedonia, a human rights activist in Kosovo, a dance teacher in Ukraine, a shipwright in Montenegro, a political activist in Transnistria, a media expert in Minsk and an artist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Pierre Crom mixed his moving images of daily life and various events with the interviews. Room for your own interpretation is given to the viewers: what you hear is not what you see.
Crimean journalist Anastasia Magazova wrote an extended analysis of the geopolitical conflicts in Eastern Europe, and Serbian political scientist Vuk Velebit wrote an analysis about the Russian influences in South-east Europe, both texts to be published on Subjectio’s social media accounts.
Subjectio is supported by Stimuleringsfonds Creative Industries and the Dutch Fund for In-depth Journalism.