Not obsolete.
We have an eccentric inventory and we fully intend to keep it that way. But among our normal input of inventory sometimes you get handed some things that can only make you scratch your head and say, “How can I make this useful?” and sometimes that is a difficult question to answer. I get used to it and always consider this a good challenge, occasionally however something comes along that is practically screaming at you to use it for something awesome.
When I come across voting booths that have been surplussed in favor of new electronic machines, I knew that we had something very cool indeed to do with them. There was limitless meaning for me when I thought of what to do with these things. Just from the basis of having a cool portable design, they would make great display or presentation cases if one had the heart to modify for that purpose.
Next thing to do was have a brainstorm with Jenn, from Orriginal Promotions, her talents and ability to connect and coordinate the culture in the Treasure Valley is innate and incredible. She took in the ideas I was having and came up with the call to arms, Art Demands Democracy.
We would like to make these booths open for a new interpretation for the value that assembling and recording your opinion and statement can give. Here at the shop I’ve adapted a couple for a simple store promotion and feedback about peoples’ experiences so that I can continue to grow and refine our service as a business in the community. Beyond that anyone could see fit to use an actual voting booth as a creative statement for anything they conceived. Think about it, an important voting year, with less than 30% of registered voters expected to show at the polls to decide our collective future for the next term. I believe that it would be something great to achieve a presence this year that argued above all else of issue, to be present and express your opinion.
As an example, I talked with a lady today who bought a booth so that she can poll people about adoption issues, this is a great purpose to capture the intended function. Let’s organize this. Let’s use these booths as the medium to express the things we think are important, whether its a creative statement or question you want to pose to society, it can all relate and grow awareness. The booths themselves can be a statement to the beholder about what one believes is important.
With our inventory one would always carry the question of obsolescence. But what about these voting booths makes them obsolete? They came with a few ballots, the stencils are still intact, all of the instructions are there, so why are these booths obsolete? Now comes the argument I will make for many things in my lifetime. They are not. It’s that simple. We can still use these things, and with these in particular, they are still very capable for their intended use.
We only have a limited amount of time to be able to use these booths before necessity requires us to recycle them and make room won’t be able to carry these booths after Independence Day. So consider this your call to action to be a voice in a statement that means something to us all. The timing is perfect, we are in an election year with expectations for voter turnout that are dismal. I believe we all can create an opportunity to coordinate a great message in our community by using these booths in all forms to promote awareness and empowerment.
Store Booth: Vote DIY, design by Chad Cooke
What to do:
-Get a booth by the beginning of July, when we have to recycle them. They are $12
-Modify a booth. Let’s use our creativity to provide definition to an important range of outlook and opinion about our system and its workings. Oh yeah…we get to use the same tools as the system this time. How cool is that?
-Deploy your booth, be ready for our Art Demands Democracy Day on First Thursday in August.
Contact us for more Info!
David at Info@reuseum.com or Jennifer Orr at info@orriginalpromotions.com
Be on the lookout for more info and, most importantly, get involved!
UPDATE 7.6.2010: WE STILL HAVE BOOTHS AVAILABLE & BALLOT HACKING HOW-TO.
In case you wanted to mod a booth but may have missed the Indy Day deadline have no fear, we still have few left so don’t hesitate to come pick one up!
Now to some fun stuff. We’ve all got ideas on redesigning the booths themselves, but what about the ballots? Well, here’s a quick demo…
Step 1- Email Dave at Info@reuseum to request a scanned ballot. Your booth should some with a few real ones as well..
-Open it with your favorite visual editing software and note its size and scaling.
Step 2- Erase all that is unimportant to your concept. Note that I left some existing dots to use for poking holes in the booth. The right side ballot is unchanged for purposes of comparison.
Step 3- Go nuts.
-Careful when printing your finished ballots! Make sure they are to scale so that the dots line up in the machine.
This is simply a tutorial on what I did to modify the ballots. Feel free to do whatever you would like with your concept. Hopefully if its needed, this will be useful to you.
Note that we can all make creative ballots individually, but can all collaborate on a more coordinated ballot to coincide with the event on First Thursday, August 5th. Our ground zero for the event will be the corner of 8th and Bannock at the *old Bricolage location.
UPDATE #2 BOOTH HACKING WORKSHOP SCHEDULED FOR 7.31.2010
Starting at 2pm and ending at 10pm on Saturday, July 31st we will open up the back tables at the Reuseum for an open workshop for anyone that wants to hack and modify a booth for our launch of booths at the August First Thursday. If you have questions, or have been waiting for an opportunity to work on/get a voting booth, now is your chance!
The workshop is free and open to the public and each booth is $11.99+tax.
Hope to see you there!
-D
