Exhibitions · 2023
“Pictures at an Election” — Central Election Commission of Russia exhibition
Exhibitions / “Pictures at an Election” — Central Election Commission of Russia exhibition
About the project
Twelve touch screens for the “Pictures at an Election” exhibition of the Central Election Commission of Russia: the history of reforms, galleries, videos, a quiz and the “Create a poster” game.
On 18 November 2023 the exhibition “Pictures at an Election: the history of the electoral process in posters” opened in the atrium of the Central Election Commission building in Moscow, marking the 30th anniversary of the CEC of Russia. It ran until 29 February 2024.
The exhibition is organised around four eras: the Russian Empire, the Russian Republic, the USSR and the Russian Federation. At its heart are original posters, printed campaign materials, documents and photographs from the collections of the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia and the State Public Historical Library. The concept and the build of the exhibition were done by the general contractor.
We made the apps for twelve touch screens — three in each section.
Year
2023
Industry
Exhibitions
Scope of work
12 touch screens: 8 vertical, 4 horizontal
Venue
Atrium of the Central Election Commission building, Moscow
- 12
- touch screens in four sections
- 2
- games: a quiz and “Create a poster”
- 18.11.2023
- opening of the exhibition for the 30th anniversary of the CEC of Russia
The task
In the exhibition concept, the originals in display cases and on stands are complemented by multimedia installations, videos on the history of the political poster and interactive games. Each of the four eras needed screens on which visitors could browse the history of reforms, postcards, documents and photographs for themselves, watch videos, test their knowledge and put together their own campaign poster. All in time for the opening on 18 November.
What we did
Vertical screens
Two in each section — eight screens in illuminated frames next to the posters. The screens are named after the eras: “Posters of the Russian Empire”, “Posters of the Russian Republic”, “Posters of the Soviet Union” and “Posters of the Russian Federation”. Each has three sections.
A timeline of the reforms of the era: for the Russian Empire, these are the zemstvo reform of 1864, the Municipal Statute of 1870, the Manifesto of 17 October 1905 and the elections to the Fourth State Duma in 1912.
A gallery of postcards, documents and photographs with captions stating which collection each item comes from: for example, the satirical postcard series “Elections” and postcards by the artist V. V. Carrick.
A video on the history of the poster: the visitor listens to the sound through a telephone handset on the screen housing.
Horizontal tables
One in each section — four sloping touch tables in the centre of the hall. They carry the same timeline of reforms, a gallery of postcards and posters and two games: a quiz and “Create a poster”.
Quiz
Ten questions based on postcards, photographs and documents of the era, each with four possible answers. For example: where were ballot papers dropped in the elections to the Second State Duma — into a tube, a casket, a chest or a ballot box? At the end comes the score out of ten and a review of each question.
“Create a poster”
A four-step poster builder: background, fragments of posters from different eras, geometric shapes and “ticks”, and a slogan — “For the happiness of the people!”, “Let us greet the elections with new victories!”, “Welcome to the elections!” and others.
How it is built
Twelve touch screens: eight vertical ones in illuminated frames — with telephone handsets for sound — and four horizontal ones on sloping pedestals.
The screens of all four eras share the same structure — a start screen with the section name and the prompt “Touch the screen”, and common navigation — while each era has its own content.
The interfaces have a white background, a tricolour stripe in the corner and large black headings; item captions give the title, author, year and collection.
We had remote access to all thirteen computers of the exhibition — the twelve touch screens and the LED screen on the “tick” in the centre of the hall.
Result
The exhibition was opened by the Chair of the CEC of Russia, Ella Pamfilova, and until 29 February 2024 twelve touch screens in four sections ran in the CEC atrium — with two games and galleries of original materials.
