THE OFFICIAL UNOFFICAL VOTING STATION: 2016
This project is supported by:
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
According to the U.S. Election Project, in 2016 28.6% of Americans, equating to more than 92 million people were disenfranchised and ineligible to vote in the presidential elections. The disenfranchised groups include youth under 18, non-citizens, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people (depending on state laws), residents of U.S. territories, and those without government-issued IDs (depending on state laws). This monumental number does not even factor in voter suppression.
In 2016, I created the first iteration of this project where I collaborated with over 15 artists, activists, and organizations and we created more than 25 imaginative voting stations in different cities all over the United States and in Mexico. Each of these voting stations took on different forms. Some were sculptural public installations, performative guerilla actions, and used as a pedagogical tool to engage students to create their own voting stations open to all. In a season where the disenfranchised are deemed to be silent and invisible, these events were not only a site for casting symbolic votes but also a site for loud celebration and protest.
Collaborators:
Sadie Woods (Chicago: Hull House and MCA)
Roberto Sifuentes (Chicago: MCA)
Lise Haller Baggesen (Chicago: Hull-House)
Verónica Casado Hernández (Baltimore/DC)
Lilah Thompson (Philadelphia)
Mara Baldwin (Ithaca)
Brandon Bullard (Detroit)
Marianne Sadowski (Los Angeles)
Maritea Daehlin (Chiapas, Mexico)
Cecilia Aguilar Castillo and Erick Fernández Saldaña (Mexico City)
The Official Unofficial Voting Station Playlist
By SADIE WOODS