by Michael Anthony Farley on April 18, 2016
This GIF from Carl Burton was inspired by Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Movement,” where thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets in 2014. Those activists carried umbrellas as a means to defend themselves from water cannons and pepper spray, often sleeping on the street for weeks at a time.
As totally fucked as our two party electoral system and its bizarre delegate loopholes and what-not are, thinking about China’s one-party system does put things in perspective. Countless people are literally dying to vote.
Tomorrow, New Yorkers, please go to the polls. Call in sick if you’re scheduled to work. Even if the line is long, or you think the election is rigged, or the media told you your candidate doesn’t have a chance. The electoral process is the one thing that can’t be protested by boycott.
New York city residents can locate your polling place and see a sample ballot here.
We’ve also made guides to the Republican and Democratic candidates with a focus on artists’ issues.
So go vote! No umbrella necessary.
Read the full article →
by Michael Anthony Farley on April 8, 2016
Faith Holland questions the early web-enthusiasts’ utopian vision of the internet as the ultimate democratic space, free of identity politics.
Today, I was deep in a Google Image Search hole looking for GIFs to illustrate our guides to the Republican and Democratic primaries. I discovered two things. One, when you search for “clown car” one of the first results is the 2016 Republican Primaries. The second was this all-star collection of “democracy” GIFs from some of our favorite artists at 15 Folds. Konbini has a write-up for each of them.
Claudia Maté’s“Noise of the Lambs” adds blue stars and red stripes to a white sheep. This is the most apt metaphor for American politics out of the bunch.
“Walking Still, Still Walking“ by Eva Papamargariti. Is Democracy a long and arduous march? A race? A stampeding hoard? Probably all of the above.
“Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” by Tristan Stevens sees democracy in Facebook’s “Like” button.
Read the full article →
