Tall projections are appearing on “urban screens” across Philadelphia for the month of October encouraging Philadelphians to vote.
The projections displayed on Philadelphia’s various iconic landmarks evoke the style of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement posters. The images display nonpartisan messages urging residents of Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs to vote.
The Center for Artistic Activism, a nonpartisan group dedicated to making social and environmental change more creative and effective, started Project Your Vote as part of its Unstoppable Voter Projects. Project Your Vote displayed video projections around large polling places, drop boxes, and vote counting sites in 2020. They projected messages inspiring people to vote and informing others where to find voter help.
Bonnie Chang, event organizer, found Project Your Vote through Center for Artistic Activism and wanted to bring the projections to Bucks County. However, Philadelphia has taller buildings better suited for displaying the projections.
“I mean all this time the political conversation and this whole atmosphere has gotten so testy and stressful, and this artistic activism is sort of really, you know, taking it from a very different perspective,” Chang said.
Four nights a week for four weeks, the 14,000 lumen projector is loaded onto a pickup truck and set up before dark on a notable building or in a Philly neighborhood.
While the projections will be in Philly, Bucks County residents had a hand in helping Project Your Vote develop. Chang said many of the donations to run the projections are from people in Bucks County. Chang received enough donations for the month of October.
“So what we did was that we, we were going to do it for two weeks, but then people were very generous,” she said.
Chang connected with Tim Brown of Philly Neighborhood Network, a neighborhood-based activist group, for help getting volunteers and devising a plan. Chang also collaborated with The Illuminator, an art-activist collective that helps stage projection projects in public spaces and helped train the volunteers.
READ: Meet a Progressive: – Activism You Can Dance to with Bonnie Chang
“So they said, ‘Let’s try three different buildings. We’re gonna set it up and do it, and you guys watch how we do it,’” Chang said.
So far the projections have been displayed on the National Constitution Center’s lawn, The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s steps, a Temple University residence hall, outside The Met Philadelphia, and other high traffic areas.
Volunteers reported to Chang about receiving positive responses from people seeing the projections and she said the team is working to pass out buttons to those who pass by.
Chang said she has fine tuned the messages to match the needs of the 2024 election cycle. She said the messages are more about encouraging people to vote rather than demanding the right to vote.
“We are continuously working with the two people, you know, who did this, developed this program to change the messaging,” Chang said.
While projecting onto iconic sites and areas with high foot traffic spreads the project’s message, Chang said she hopes to go into neighborhoods and inspire the people who are “not that excited” about voting.
“This is your right. Don’t give it up, right, even if you’re not happy about how it is now, you know, you have a right to shape your future,” Chang said.
