Gently Bang Your Head Against The Wall Here: An Installation About The U.S. Electoral College
Gently Bang Your Head Against The Wall Here: An Installation About The U.S. Electoral College is a visualization of how the map of the electoral college results would be transformed if electoral votes were allocated within each state on a proportional, instead of a winner-take-all, basis.
The installation consists of 538 machine- and hand-stitched soft sculpture fabric lips arranged in grid that represents the U.S. presidential electoral college map. Each lip represents one electoral vote. Lips were used because they signify our ability to speak, to be free and to stand up and publicize our views, emotions, thoughts and desires.
The installation shows how the distribution of electoral votes would change if electoral votes were not awarded under a winner-take-all system in each state, but instead were awarded proportionally based on each candidate's proportion of votes in each state. For example, if a state has 10 electoral votes and Harris got 40% of the popular vote in that state and Trump got 60% of the popular vote in that state, she would get four electoral votes and he would get six electoral votes, as opposed to the current system where he would be awarded all ten electoral votes.
To begin, lips representing electoral votes that went to Trump under the current winner-take-all allocation system were stitched shut with red x's.
Lips representing electoral votes that went to Harris under the current winner-take-all allocation system were left white without being stitched shut with red x's.
Then, to show the changes that would result under a proportional system, the x'd lips that would change from Trump to Harris, were unstitched with the unstitched thread left dangling from the lip.
The electoral votes that would switch from Harris to Trump under the proportional system are shown by partially stitching the lip with red x's and leaving the needle in the fabric to show that the lip is changing from unstitched to stitched.
An optional companion piece to the installation is a catharsis wall inviting viewer participation. One station is a padded section of the wall with the instructions, "Gently Bang Your Head Against The Wall Here." Another station is a pillow with the instructions to, "Put Your Face Into The Pillow And Scream." Hyperventilation bags are available for use while viewing the installation.
Installation as pictured is 20 feet wide by 6 feet high with the lips arranged into a grid of 30 columns and 18 rows. It can be installed on one wall or on two adjacent walls extending out from a corner. It can also be reconfigured to fit a specific space or broken up into mini-grids for each state. Additionally, the calculations can be redone to present the results of any year’s election. The grid map shows the location of each lip in the installation. The above-pictured map is for the 2016 election results. Lips are between 4” and 7” wide and are pinned 1” away from the wall.
Recently installed in the Politically Charged exhibition at Blue Line Arts in Roseville, CA outside of Sacramento. See Sacramento News and Review article, which features a photo from this installation, here. Download the grid map handout to be used when viewing installation
Oh, and by the way . . . under the proportional allocation system, she would have lost by only 10 electoral votes instead of 86.
Under the same analysis of the 2016 electoral college, Clinton would have won.