For this project, we were tasked with creating an animated, typographic editorial illustration for an op-ed of our choosing. I chose the Adam Sternbergh article above.

Sternbergh discusses how the sci-fi thriller TV series Severance reflects our current divisive and paranoid political climate. In the show, innies and outies—essentially two minds in a shared body—are seen conspiring against each other, suggesting that those closest to us may not be who we think they are. Our coworkers, neighbors, or even family may hold beliefs destructive to our own personhood. Anyone might be the enemy. The article submits that this suspicion—at once a cause and result of vitriolic political discord—may be a wise form of wary self-preservation.

To capture these ideas, I referenced a ubiquitous symbol of conspiracy and paranoia—the pyramid. Merging this with the software interface featured in Severance, the illustration positions the viewer as the paranoid one, categorizing without intimation strangers, peers, and loved ones into enemy ranks. As with the software on the show itself, these decisions are make arbitrarily, yet instinctively in response to emotional urges. It declares that even our most innocuous relationships may be conspirators, traitors, and enemies.