Editor's Introduction

The Electoral College and the project's publication in the Vectors Journal launch on the eve of the U.S. Presidential Elections. The project produces media from the floors of political events in real-time. Readers are presented with a web-based interface—called a "tuner" by the development team—suggestive of twenty-four hour cable news stations with video, still images, audio conversations, and text feeds. The Electoral College provides a strong commentary on the fabricated, often indulgent nature of U.S. politics. Memories of the campaign trail replayed on television, much of the action of the conventions—and indeed the spontaneous events—are based on detailed scripts created months before. Jon Winet's work provides an alternative view of convention characters and sub-plots and endeavors to understand the influence of large-scale media events.

Presidents in the U.S. are elected indirectly by U.S. citizens with each state casting proportional votes at the Electoral College. In most cases, a state's constituents vote as a whole, causing circumstances such as the 2000 election that saw Al Gore win the overall direct vote but lose the election in the college . As a consequence, parts of the U.S. that have small populations and thus little national media exposure (for example, Iowa and New Hampshire) become a critical voice in politics. Winet's projects exploit aspects of political events that don't otherwise receive attention, often produce media from small population states, and emphasize the role of community in politics. The Electoral College began with video interviews with local residents during the Iowa Caucuses in January, 2008 (the snapshots may be viewed on the project's Youtube channel). Production locations include the Democratic and Republican national conventions in Colorado and Minnesota, and also interviews with Nebraskans that Winet produced while driving from Omaha and on-the-street interviews outside the convention center in Denver.

Central to Winet's research in the construction of media environments, The Electoral College "tuner" features audio commentary for the embedded videos. A reader presses a button and hears secondary audio conversations, similar to a DVD's director's commentary. The commentaries originate from invited participants or by reader submissions through an upload form in the application, which is then moderated. The technology on one hand makes the project more democratic by affording user participation. On the other, the moderated commentaries provide fodder for the construction of a pre-defined narrative. The audio commentary feature of the "tuner" is a bold step towards understanding the construction of media events by the U.S. political conventions.