The “Electo Electro 2024” interactive political parody exhibit created by Mike Richison, M.F.A., Associate Art and Design Professor, is on display in the Rechnitz Hall Rotary Ice House Gallery. The exhibit uses voting booths that allow the audience to pick from preselected clips taken from presidential debates and rallies, and remix them to create a technostyle beat.
The interactive installation uses decommissioned Diebold AccuVote-TS voting booths for audience members to stand at and sample the clips. Richison explained, “I went through their interviews, press conferences, debates and grabbed little bits of their speech and made a beatbox out of it.”
Richison received a grant in the fall of 2019 from Monmouth University
amounting to $2,000. The grant was used to purchase the Diebold AccuVote-TS voting booths and the iPads Richison installed in them. There are a total of eight iPads that are linked together by the downbeat and operate at the same
time. One iPad is a keyboard based vocoder, a software that takes speech and synthesizes it which allows the participant to control the speed and pitch of the recording. Richison said, “I built the software to kind of look like a voting interface, but it also looks like a musical interface too.”
Well-known phrases from presidential rallies and debates are selected for the exhibit. For other clips, Richison said, “I also get more general clips like when JD Vance was saying, ‘God Bless America, we are the greatest country in the world’ It is a nice and easy one to work with.” He continued, “As far as the way
Donald Trump speaks, it is more melodic and the way he repeats himself a lot, he pauses a lot when he speaks. So, there is just a lot you can do with the way he talks.”
Cheyenne Fair, a senior criminal justice and graphic design student, said, “I believe it will(resonate) because I feel like everywhere, not just the Monmouth area, is pretty divided currently. So having a political exhibit close to the election could possibly open people’s minds to understand what each side is saying.”
She continued, “Having the exhibit set up in actual old voting stations could even convey nostalgia and appreciation for how far our country has come thus far. And maybe encourage people that didn’t plan to vote, to actually go out and vote.”
While the exhibit is a parody, Richison said, “It is about music, it is about entertainment, and the conversation. Friends and faculty will come by and chat, or just people passing by. People from the community came a few days ago, and just people who are interested in seeing what is going on. It ends up being a conversation about politics somehow and it gives people a forum. A friendlier forum to talk with no rage. ”Russel Mancino, a junior graphic design student, has visited the exhibit ten times. He said, “My thoughts about interactive art exhibits in general is that they are entertaining, especially for the general public. I enjoy the ‘Electo Electro’ exhibit .The one thing that holds my interest is its involvement in making music by sampling videos.”
Richison has been hands-on interacting with the audience. Scott Knauer, M.F.A., Director of Galleries and Collections, said, “As Professor Richison has been in almost every day, it has given visitors the opportunity to work with him, discuss the overall exhibition, and ‘jam’ with him on the Beat-boxset-up that he has developed.”
Corey Dzenko, Ph.D., Associate Art and Design Professor, said, “I think it is wonderful to see how Mike Richison came up with a project that he can then update for our current day. This is one of the interesting things about new media, or art that is made with digital components. The artist can change parts of it, unlike in art practices that make a singular final object.”
Knaur said, “It is truly a uniquely creative installation that allows visitors interaction with a timely subject and serves as a creative outlet as we enter this coming election cycle!”
Richison began creating political art in 2004 with a looped video of George W. Bush drinking water during a presidential debate. In every election cycle since then, Richison has created a new political project.
Richison wants to travel with “Electo Electro 2024.” He said, “I am taking it to Cornell University, it has a small seminar, but I am really happy to be on campus.” “Electo Electro2024” will be on display in the Rotary Ice House Gallery until Dec. 20.
