A digital story for the web, “When I Was President” is a portrait of absolute power as depicted by a fictional President of the United States. This President is unnamed and non-historical, that is, he has never, and could never, exist, yet what he represents is archetypal in nature and endures within the optimism, dangers, and limitations of political power.
The work is created in Flash and divided into nine sections, each of which addresses a different Presidential act of power, and its consequences. The acts of power are elemental and metaphoric–they are simultaneously absurd, idiosyncratic, and impossible, yet they seem to tell some basic truth about the promise of absolute power, and its inherent failures.
“When I Was President” takes approximately four minutes to view. No special downloads or plugins are required.
This work uses images, videos, and audio files acquired online, and modified by the artist. A credits page is included on the site.
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