I operate Forest Sounds Theatre Company with Andy Owen Cook. We are based in Sheffield, residents at Theatre Delicatessen North, and we are currently working on a hour-long poetry show. Our official website is officially ‘Coming Soon’.
Dissatisfied by the choice presented to us in the 2015 General Election, Andy and I decided to produce an antidote to the feeling of despondency that fell fog-like over our Sheffield. We felt frustrated that our choice was severely limited, practically impotent despite supposedly living in a democracy.
The obvious thing to do, then, was to hold our own vote: implement and use an alternative voting system in Sheffield. We installed our production at Theatre Delicatessen on the Moor for the week running up to the election. After staying up all night painting signs we had this:
We collected well over 100 policies, and lots of other contributions around the space.
We launched on the night of the election, holding a live vote-in introduced by speakers who each gave an insight into a different issue which we believed deserved airing at this nationally significant time.
Click to enlarge
The vote itself was successful insofar as we created a Sheffield Constitution (yay!), but as a voting experiment it actually taught us a lot more about the importance of debate and about how to manage people democratically. See below for the Constitution.
The Sheffield Alternative Election received one published review, right. We hope to take this project further, including into schools and deprived areas as a mobile voting experiment, with help from the Arts Council.
Ben Jackson 