Organization: UC Davis Department of Design
Role: Design MFA Candidate
Year: 2017-19
Local Actions, National Outcomes: How Piecemeal Election Design Has Led US Voting Into Chaos
Local Actions, National Outcomes was my thesis project—the final installation showing two years worth of research and creative practice aimed at understanding the issues with voting in the United States. This work explores how states (and sometimes county municipalities) create chaos for US voting because states have the right to plan and execute their own ballot design, gerrymandering, and voter identification laws. In order to illuminate these problems, this project uses simple information design and physical interaction to transport visitors mentally and physically.
After visitors digest some of the information on the panels, they are invited to go inside the wooden voting booth (left) to answer the question “How do you envision the future of voting in the United States?” In order to ‘cast their ballot’, visitors write or draw on cardstock and pin their response to a corkboard mounted to the wall.
Thesis committee: Tim McNeil, MFA (chair), glenda drew, MFA, Simon Sadler, PhD