World Building

Artist's Statement:

For our World Building assignment, we created a world in which elected leaders, such as presidents, were chosen through game show competitions. This idea stemmed from our media’s oversimplification of political issues and the way that democratic elections often seem to boil down to glorified popularity contests. As we fleshed out our concept, we came to consider how the world we constructed and the world we live in reflects and influences our media aesthetics. Ever since the legendary Nixon-Kennedy debate in 1960, the exterior appearance of a politician and their skill in front of a camera has seemingly become more important than their stance on the pressing issues of the day. Keeping these trends in mind, we went about creating fabricated media that would exist in this world—magazine covers, a middle school history report, and the games that might be used to select a president. Through this variety of mediums, we were able to present several different ideas and how this world would potentially function.

The catalyst for this idea was Mike Judge’s 2006 film Idiocracy, which paints a bleak future in which a consumer society obsessed with reality TV and energy drinks becomes astronomically dumber as generations go on. We at first considered a dark future like this, and there are certainly terrifying elements that a world such as this would present. We already seem to be moving towards a future in which a politician’s political experience and ability to “get things done” seems to be nonessential, and our world boils that down to its basest essence. In a game show, real-world skills aren’t important, but rather oddball talents, physical prowess, or a memorized array of useless factoids will win you the top prize.

As we discussed these parallels, we found ourselves drawn to the world—we could see the situation working, as silly as that sounds, but choosing a president based off of trivia pertinent to real world events could benefit the world. With this in mind, we knew that the “important” people of this world would be the familiar faces of TV game shows such as Bob Barker from The Price is Right and the people sought out, as political candidate advisors, would be the gaming gurus like Ken Jennings.

We aimed to represent this objectively by highlighting the draw and potential benefits that this change could have.  On our Cosmo cover, we see potential progress via a female president.  In Parenting Magazine, we see parents placing more emphasis on their children’s education from a younger age. The president is popular in a way he/she isn’t now—namely people want to be him/her.  As a result our society is making progress by being less fat and ironically smarter.  Our alternate future presents real potential benefits for society. But there is also a dark undertone to all this in that the progress probably isn’t real.  The “progress” of having our female president on a magazine cover that is pretty basely degrading to women quite possibly represents a well masked digression.  Either way that is up to the viewer but in the end the point is to explore this real social issue of appearances over issues and again as Bleeker says help us “think through matters-of-concern.”

In Bleeker’s essay he wrote that fiction follows fact. He explored how “design fictions” can provoke questions concerning the world. As Bleeker wrote; “Design fictions help tell stories that provoke and raise questions. Like props that help focus the imagination and speculate about possible near future worlds – whether profound change or simple, even mundane social practices.”

In our case, the design of our world followed fact in that it was based on the complexity America regards the election process and how presidential campaigns are invading late night television and common media. Our premise merely accentuated these problems and perceived interpretations of the progression of presidential campaigns.

Presidential Games

Penny Shots

• Each candidate has an supply of pennies in a giant bowl
• Each candidate has an identical shot glass 5 feet in front of them (contestants must stay behind the line)
• Candidates have 1 minute to toss pennies at the shot glass
• Whoever gets the most pennies in the shot glass by the end of the minute wins!

Capture the Flag

• A classic playground game
• Candidates are presented with a row of potential team-mates
• Candidates take turns picking members for their team (coin is tossed to see who picks first)
• Once teams are picked and clearly marked as red and blue, they are lead to the arena
• The arena is clearly divided into red and blue halves
• Each team is given a flag that the candidates choose to hide
• Each team’s objective is to get the other team’s flag while protecting their own
• Candidates are in charge of team strategy
• When a team member crosses over into enemy territory, they may be “tagged” by members of that territory
• Tagged players must go to the clearly marked “jail” poles
• Players in jail may be freed if touched by a member of their own team that is not currently in jail
• Recently freed players may return unharmed back to their side before resuming game play, they may not try to capture the flag, however, on their way back
• Whichever team captures the flag ⅗ times wins!

Plunko!

• As seen on “The Price is Right!”
• Candidates are given 3 chips each
• Candidates must ascend the stairs to the top of the Plunko! board
• Candidates must take each chip, one at a time, and place them flat against the Plunko! board and drop the chips
• The chips will then fall down the Plunko! board until they reach a slot at the bottom
• Each slot is labeled with a different number of points
• The candidate with the most total points wins!

Who Wants to be the President?

• Candidates must compete in trivia questions in order to accumulate points
• Questions are multiple choice
• Questions get harder as the points get higher
• Candidates are given 3 life-lines: 50/50, ask the audience, and phone a friend
• The Candidate who is able to reach 1,000,000 points first wins!

Bouncy Slime Soccer

• Candidates are given sock’em boppers, and must wear them on each hand for the duration of the competition
• Candidates are given kickboxing helmets
• Candidates are escorted into an inflatable arena covered in green-slime, similar to as seen on Nickelodeon of old
• The candidates must remain in the area for the duration of the competition, exiting the arena will result in disqualification
• A beachball is thrown into the arena at the start of the game
• Candidates must get the beachball into their opponent's goal
• The ball may be kicked, carried, or put in the opponent’s goal by any means necessary (so long as the sock’em boppers are worn)
• Candidates can do whatever it takes to prevent their opponent from scoring a goal
• Whoever reaches 5 points first wins!