Elections 2000
| The local 2000 elections for various official posts within
Lee County in southwest Florida, provided an opportunity to create an
installation that focused on one of the most serious issues facing the
democratic experiment in America, namely, voter apathy.
Over the last few decades the voting turnout has been dismal at best, compared to population numbers of eligible voters.
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 The soccer field of St. Andrew Catholic school served as the stage for the installation. |
 The centerpiece of the installation was a 3' x 4' x 4' red, white and blue Ballot Box. |
| The players of the collaborative work included a selection of students from St. Andrew's art and media classes. the student's from Mrs. Harper's class prepared a number of ballots that carried the central message of the work. The media class documented the installation and subsequently aired a presentation over the school network. |
 The students display the ballots each of them made to create a slogan that read: "PLAIN- AND- SIMPLE - VOTE -OR THE -AMERICAN- DREAM -WILL -FADE -FADE- AWAY- DO YOUR- PART -VOTE!" |
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| Other players on the installation where the real
candidates running for office who brought their own campaign signs just a
few days before the actual elections where to take place. These candidates brought to the installation the personification of the most fundamental elements of democracy. |
 The children complemented the effort by parading into the scene, presenting the ballots and depositing them into the ballot box as if casting a vote. |
| At a critical moment on the program the children shouted
the slogan and just as the last word was spoken, a flock of white
messenger pigeons emerged from within the ballot box to carryout the
mission of delivering the message to voters to exercise suffrage. The audience to the installation was comprised of the entire student body and faculty of the St. Andrew Catholic Church. |
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 The media class students who documented the installation for St Andrew Catholic School. |
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| Mr. Thomas H. Jensen of @lantis Video Documented the installation for me |
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| Photojournalist (name) from WINK-TV a CBS affiliate covered the installation as a story feature for the news |
| Political systems by definition are entities that require
growth, improvements and directional acuity in order to prosper and
maintain their redeemable value to the society they serve. Their
fundamental values also need to be transferred from generation to
generation.
I believe, that it is at these transfer points that the systems can be upgraded and launch the improvements that will benefit the system. I venture to propose that today's voter apathy has a lot to do with the degree of meaningful first hand acquaintance with the process at an early age. The installation presents the binary structure of art and life as one and illustrates how the work energized the environment it modified to create an experience that became inextricably connected to the election campaign to the perception of the electoral process and to the new role of the arts in the modeling of solutions to critical problems such as voter indifference. Tiité |
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