Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Nerd History: An art project for your vote


While Americans begin doing early voting and hitting the polls, everyone has their own reason for voting and finds their own route to getting to that decision. Ohio is one of the more important states, and one artist has decided that art is the best way to figure out where his vote should go. He opened an art installation in Ohio on 10 October:

At the opening tonight we will have a live action performance to decide the fate of the election using Dungeons and Dragons dice, rules and attacks. We have created an all-encompassing environment for the game, including a dungeon wall with candelabra, an old church podium, and physical elements relating to the battle. I will be Dungeon Master and ask for two volunteers to come up and play the roles of Obama and Romney. We’ll go through a little ceremony and then they’ll roll D&D dice and “damage” each other until there is a victor. Whoever comes out victorious will win my real-life vote in Ohio. When I go to the polls, I’ll take photo documentation so people know that I have voted for the winner of the game.

This is a little funny and a lot scary for me for a lot of reasons, but whatever. According to Wired, Obama ended up being the victor:

The two contestants rolled giant d20s into a box that resembled a craps table. Obama used a d12 for damage and Mitt a d10. Then came the climactic moment: “The hits went back and forth until Mitt had 10 hit points and Obama had 20,” Smith said. The final roll took Mitt to -1 hit points. Smith pronounced King Belian the victor and finished saying “My vote binds the future.”

Regardless of one's feelings on the upcoming election, the internet makes it easier to find these somewhat strange performance art pieces, and serve as one of those strange arcane concepts that often get lost to the ages.

No comments:

Post a Comment