SIMULATING SOCIO-POLITICAL PROTEST

This paper presents an analysis of Protest-$1: an artistic-technological, multi-user, interactive, relational project that provides the user with a cognitive approach to the socio-political protest by being part of a simulated demonstration against the Israeli bombing of Palestine. The installation comprises a front projection screen, two loudspeakers and three devices each consisting of a megaphone and a smartphone. The person who is interacting selects the actions that he/she wants to make happen during the protest event by pressing the buttons on the touch screen of a mobile phone and then shaking a megaphone so that, through this effort, the chosen action can be implemented in the demonstration. Likewise, by creating a framework in which the wishes of the majority always prevail over those of the minority, Protest-$1 allows the users to fight and thus prevent another user from managing to implement their own chosen protest action. The loudspeakers broadcast the voice of the mass media reporting on the protest in the form of a news bulletin and in real time, thus allowing those interacting to articulate the protest while remaining aware of the global image that is being broadcast.