Manning The Polls
Election seasons are always very exciting. Whether you are
enjoying the combat happening between your friends on Facebook, or waiting in
line for several hours to cast your vote, it is nearly impossible to avoid the
experience all together. And, it seems to me, the experience has divided itself
into two parts. One part being the social media experience, and the second part
being the voting experience.
It seems that during election season, all the ugly and
hostile friends rise on Facebook and take their rightful place at the head of
table of jerks. And I mean that in the best possible way. I think it’s awesome
that we have a free platform in which to express our opinions, even if we do it
in a disrespectful and uneducated way. I myself, felt the need to un-friend a
handful of old friends as well as some family members (I had a cousin who says
that ‘a vote for Obama is like a vote for terrorism’… where do you even begin
with that?) So I do believe that this social media experience is a crucial part
of it… but I’m not sure how you would ‘jar’ it up and put it in a museum.
Especially since most of the drama on Facebook comes from close personal ties
being loosened when you find out your friends political beliefs, so I’m not
sure how you would do this in a exhibition.
So I wanted to think of another experience. Voting. The
actually act of voting is a great experience. But the voting can be pretty
boring… unless you are in Florida.
I propose that an exhibit is put up, very similarly to the
Living Photos we saw in Indianapolis. But we bring alive an image of people
waiting to vote in Florida. There were many problems with Florida’s voting
system this year and people woke up as early as One O’clock in the morning to
vote! How amazing would it be to be able to talk to these people! The
dedication they must have! The commitment to the candidates they are voting
for!
Not only that, but we would be able to get an unbiased
opinion from them all, since it is a voting poll, we’ll have a great mix of people
to talk to. People who strongly believe in one candidate or another, voters who
don’t really care (which is important, although apathy is frustrating.)
So in this exhibit we would have 6 different kinds of
characters waiting in line.
1.
The Obama supporter (older): This person
believes in Obama completely. Believes that his economic issues and social
liberty issues are all on the right track and will be able to debate anyone who
says anything different.
2.
The Romney supporter (older): This person is behind
Romney through and through and has debated many times with their friends that
we must rebuild the economy first, then we can do social rights.
3.
The Obama supporter (younger): The enthusiasm
that the younger generation brought to the Obama campaign will be represented
in this. This character, like myself, won’t have much of a grasp on Obama’s
financial issues, but knows that he believes in equality and that, this
character believes, is first and foremost in the issues.
4.
The Romney supporter (younger): This character
is basically the same thing as the Obama supporter (younger). Sort of a
one-issue voter. Now, I’m not saying that all young people are one-issue
voters, but the one-issue voters are being represented by the younger
characters.
5.
Polling Advisor: This is the character that runs
the polls. The other characters will complain to him about how long they’ve
been waiting, ask why the machines are down, etc. He’ll be a completely neutral
character and the only opinions on politics he’ll have is the importance of
voting.
6.
The crazy canvassers: At a least ditch attempt,
there’ll be a person with a sign begging you to vote for their candidate. Now,
this can switch through out the day. Maybe one day it’s a Romney supporter, the
next it’s an Obama pusher. And maybe even someone for the libertarian
candidate. But the pressure from the outside world will be represented in this
person.
There are absolutely a million more characters we could (and
probably should) add to this to fairly represent the voting experience in a
nutshell, but I’m hoping that these main ones will gives us a broad basic wash.
To tie the social media aspect into all of this, I propose
that after visiting the living photo of the voting line, viewers can go into
another room that has facts and post a Status on a fake media website. There’ll
be several computers strewn about and anybody can make a status. Also, anybody
can comment on them. So hopefully we’ll bring alive the stress from putting
your opinions on a social media site and having them mocked or encouraged by
friends and total strangers.
I know this is an obvious way to envelope the voting
experience, but sometimes the obvious is the best. What better way to
understand the experience than try and get to the heart of it. And, after
having talked to my friends and family in Florida, it seems that the stress of
voting there is something that can really magnify and focus the experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment