AUTHORITARIAN IDOL is an audiovisual mashup of pop, politics, and performance art. The remixed words and images of presidential candidates stand as testimony to the collision of civic ritual and media spectacle that is the American electoral system.
Hosted by Maxx Klaxon, AUTHORITARIAN IDOL combines thematically attuned electropop songs with interactive video interrogations of politicians’ digitally animated avatars. The result is a darkly entertaining satire of an infotainment-driven democratic process.
This multimedia performance was first staged at venues in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wilmington, Delaware, during the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election.
A new version of AUTHORITARIAN IDOL was presented in a series of performances during fall 2012, culminating in an encore presentation at the RE/Mixed Media Festival in Brooklyn. Another version, this time featuring 3D video, unfolded in fall 2016 at the Center for the Holographic Arts and other venues in New York City.