Aesthetic & Visual Language
• Icons & Props: Yellow-ribbon stickers, postered patriotic slogans, co-opted evangelical symbols, surveillance drones disguised as pop-stars.
• Tone & Texture: Bright, glossy, washed-out visuals with hyper-real smog, bleach-washed consumer goods, and pastel propaganda.
• Narrative Structure: Nonlinear, glitch-scarred media broadcasts, overlapping public service announcements and faux reality snippets.

Inspirations & Media Examples
• Southland Tales – The founding text: a hallucinatory satire of post-9/11 Los Angeles, media theatrics, and apocalypse-washed kitsch. Called a “counter-apocalyptic” critique of the security state.   
• Academic commentary highlights how it reflects the early 2000s warped through surreal visuals and media collages. 
• Broader critiques explore how horror, TV, and cinema digest terrorism, surveillance, and trauma through allegory and gothic twists.  
• Cultural analysis shows how media after 9/11 began internalizing fear, nostalgia, and performative displays of security realism.