'I played with what can be shown versus not shown': the story behind Split Screen: Kid Nation's cover art

Before you press play on the new CBC podcast Split Screen: Kid Nation, you'll probably see its artwork.

The podcast tells the story of the controversial reality TV show Kid Nation. In 2007, producers took 40 kids into a makeshift desert town to create their own society, Lord of the Flies-style. What could go wrong? Split Screen explores how the cult TV show fits into the ever-relevant debate about the ethics of reality television.  

This podcast's cover art takes you deeper into that story than you might expect, and it was all part of the creative process of artist Anthony Campbell. We sat down with Anthony to chat about their artistic process and take a closer look at Split Screen's cover.

Split Screen: Kid Nation dives into a very layered story. How did you start putting this concept together?

I got to listen to the first episode. I felt a very specific, generational connection to that, [especially] as a kid who was raised on reality TV. But at the same time, there is something inherently exploitative about it. At first I was like, 'Oh, I should watch the show as I make this.' Then I listened to the first episode and I was like, 'Actually, I don't know if I want to watch the show.'

Taking that as a basis, I played with what can be shown versus not shown. I wanted to develop strategies to highlight the themes [rather] than depict the kids who were being exploited for their labour.

That's where I landed on this motif of an eye. I really like the iconography of eyes and of looking. I felt it worked really well for this because it's a story about a lot of different gazes crossing each other at different points and the weight of gaze, which is something I think about a lot in my own art. So it felt very natural.

But at the same time, I wanted something that would also charm people into listening to the show, which is the duality of the premise—it's interesting and you want to look. But at the same time, if you do look, what do you learn?

Can you tell us about some of the specific Easter eggs and details in this piece? 

The eye was the central element. There's eyes with dollar signs in them, there's eyes with stars… And the star was also specific iconography that the producers wanted to work with, because there's a star in the show.

Stars are something I love to draw in my own time, but there's so much meaning you can graft onto stars. They're simple and remote at the same time. There's a distance between you and them. But at the same time, you always want to be looking at them. So I feel like that was the element I wanted to have throughout it. The yucca cactus is the state flower of New Mexico, so I put that in. 

My drawing style is kind of whimsical. The idea was that they can look like the doodles that you do in the margins of your school notes. But the subject matter is actually kind of gruesome. They look friendly, but when you actually look at them, it's kind of sinister. 

As much as I love watching reality TV, it's a very mixed-feelings relationship. Which is why I was so interested in this show. It felt like Josh, the host, was really interested in peeling apart those emotional contradictions.- Anthony Campbell, artist

What sort of response were you hoping to get from potential listeners who see this cover?

The number one response is curiosity. I feel like that's kind of the target emotion you want from any podcast art. You want people to be interested.

I wanted a grungy feel to it as well. It's meant to evoke nostalgia for the 2000s, so I basically went back and looked at all my favourite album covers from that era. As a teenager I was a huge record collector, so I still have hundreds of CDs and records in my collection. I went back and looked at all my favourite ones, and I love the grunge and Y2K melding.

There's this word that we sometimes use in design: haptic. [It's] is when you feel like you could touch it but you can't. I wanted it to feel like that, which is also the experience of watching something on a screen to begin with. 

You mentioned that the creative process of this project helped you work up the courage to choose a new name. Can you tell us a bit about that?

I remember being a kid who grew up watching Survivor and thinking it would be so cool to have a kid version of Survivor. As a kid, of course you think that, right? But then when it actually happens, you realize how exploitative and dangerous it is. All the pressures of being observed at that level, when you're that young. 

So, it kind of put me in an emotional headspace where I was thinking a lot about the pressures of growing up in the public gaze. And even though I didn't grow up in the public gaze, I still did deal with, as a trans person, the gazes of other people and them grafting meaning onto you that you don't necessarily want or can control. 

I started transitioning three years ago, but I hadn't chosen a new name yet when I started, because I didn't really know if I wanted to change my name. People don't really talk about it, but not all trans people hate their birth name. I really liked my birth name. I thought it was a great name. But I couldn't control the meaning other people grafted onto it. And for a long time that really frustrated me, but gradually over the process of doing this, I learned to release a lot of that frustration.

So I wanted to choose a new name that gave me more room to grow. Because I feel like I couldn't grow in the ways I wanted to with my old name, which is kind of like taking off a childhood coat that you no longer fit. Even though you love that coat, you physically no longer fit it anymore. I'd rather take it off and have a good relationship to it, then grow to resent it.

In this process, I also worked with a producer who had the same name as my birth name. I realized, 'Oh, there's still good people in the world who are gonna use this name.' It's gonna carry on. It's gonna have its own life in the world with other people who love it, maybe even more than I love it. And that gave me a lot of assurance, weirdly.

It sounds like Kid Nation really had an impact. You mentioned earlier that you were going back and forth about watching the show. Would you ever watch it?

I have seen clips of it because, I mean, it's hard not to with a show this infamous. People talk about it all the time.

But I feel like I'd probably have a hard time watching the full show. As much as I love watching reality TV, it's a very mixed-feelings relationship, which is why I was so interested in this show. It felt like Josh, the host, was really interested in peeling apart those emotional contradictions.

So at this point, I don't know if I want to watch the whole show. I don't think I will, but who knows? Never say never.

You can find more of Anthony's work on Instagram @acrookedmouth or their website www.acrookedmouth.ca. 

You can check out Split Screen: Kid Nation and take a closer look at Anthony's cover at CBC Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

This conversation has been edited and condensed.