Goldbergian Voting Machine, analog voting machine reinvents modular computing

UCLA Design Media Arts program

The “Goldbergian Voting Machine“, built over an eight week period by a group of students at UCLA’s Design | Media Arts program, is a fully functional voting machine constructed from 20 individual modules, with each module designed and built by a different student in the program. The wooden structure that housed the machine was built to enable easy connectivity between the modules themselves as they communicated from one to the to the next through a combination of physical and electrical signals. One module uses a rotary telephone that calls people in the LA area and plays them recording of a candidate speaking in an attempt to eleicit reactions from the greater population and give the machine a larger voice. The resulting vote was carried through each of the modules until it was counted at the end of the cycle. For the project, two fictional political parties were created called THE DREAMERS OF DECADANCE and the REDESIGNING HUMANS PARTY. Interesting attempt to fix the broken US voting system that was plagued by “hanging chads” and analog / paper methods of counting through the last two presidential elections.

Jonah Brucker-Cohen