Join us for a virtual live stream of
Packing and Cracking:
An Interactive Mapmaking Event
Created by Joseph Amodei and Rachel Gita Karp
October 23rd and 24th @ 7:30 p.m.
The Process Series continues its 13th season, with a virtual event about gerrymandering: the pervasive practice of politicians choosing their voters rather than the other way around. Packing and Cracking provides a national overview of this practice, but focuses on redistricting and gerrymandering in North Carolina, historically one of the most gerrymandered states in the country.
Packing and Cracking is an interactive event using audience-participatory drawing and map-drawing games, critical cartography, historical accounts of the first gerrymanders, and interviews with people dealing with gerrymandering today. This performance exposes how easy and disenfranchising gerrymandering can be and ask what, if anything, we should do about it.
www.packingandcracking.com
This production will be presented in a live streaming format. Audience members can choose if they would like to participate in the interactive map-making games. This is the best way to enjoy the event and we hope you will choose to participate! If you would like to attend the virtual performance, you must reserve a space by filling out this form.
Created by Joseph Amodei (UNC ’13) and Rachel Gita Karp, Packing and Cracking focuses on one state’s gerrymandering story at a time. According to Amodei, “Our current focus is North Carolina, whose maps have been so racially and partisanly manipulated in recent years that (based on research done by UNC’s Andrew Reynolds) it has led to the state no longer being classified as a democracy.”
Co-creator Rachel Gita Karp states that she is, “thrilled to bring Packing and Cracking to the Process Series this October. The politicians elected in November will be the ones who draw political districts for all of North Carolina next year—and those lines could be in place, affecting all elections, for the next decade. It’s a crucial time to think about gerrymandering and the way we want to be represented.”
Co-creator Amodei adds, “Packing and Cracking is an interactive, media-based event. This means audiences play a series of games with each other to foster community, learn about gerrymandering, and explore the invisible district lines in their own backyards. Inspired by Mary Flanagan’s idea of Critical Play, we set up a performative space where gameplay allows participants to rehearse futures where representation reflects their values and ideals.”
Process Series director, Joseph Megel, notes, “Once again we are delighted to bring a UNC alum back home. Joseph Amodei’s roots are in the Department of Art and Art History. Watching how our local artists take flight is always a celebration of how the arts and humanities at UNC contribute to the larger culture. The role of the artist during these uncertain times is to help us greater understanding our world and perhaps lead to action.”
This live stream is part of the UNC Process Series and is co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History. Tickets for the virtual show are free, but you must reserve a space by filling out this form. Also let us know if you want to take part in the “interactive” aspects of the performance. We will contact you with a link and further instructions a few days prior to the performance. A suggested donation of $10 can be made to support our production costs by visiting this link.
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