The Candidate is Absent, 2016
A Project of the Pinecone Finance Reform Party
with E.E. Miller, Bernadine Mellis, and Sara Smith
Frustrated with the state of presidential electoral politics in the summer of 2016, we created a pop-up campaign headquarters in the A.P.E. Gallery (Northampton, MA) in which we manifested "The Candidate." Open for a week, this participatory installation included workshops and events in which the community engaged in dialogue and experimentation around the ideals of democracy and political participation.
From the project website:
The Pinecone Finance Reform Party is a forest-floor organization inspired by historical desires and disappointments to conduct local action research with a global vision. We are manifesting a candidate who speaks with us, as we imagine a campaign and a world we can build together.
The Pinecone Finance Reform Party launched The Candidate’s 2016 presidential campaign with a host of workshops and actions for the people. Workshops addressed various aspects of platform building including Hands-on Democracy Construction with Gina Siepel, an Electioneering Ephemera Atelier with Sara Smith, Manifesto Writing with Andrea Lawlor, and Public Speaking with Kenya Briggs. Participatory actions included Listening Lunches with EE Miller, a public performance of “I Want A President …,” and concluded with an UNconventional victory DANCE Party!