“A Series of Choices” is an interactive installation where visitors will vote for statements that relate to their experience with abortion and culminate in a large-scale, participatory data visualization of this data. Audience members exercise their enshrined right to vote to assert how issues of reproductive justice affect and inform their lived experiences. Through accessible design and materials, this data visualization of votes aggregates in the white cube space, becoming a visual takeover of how communities really think and feel about abortions, and reproductive freedom. “A Series of Choices” highlights the nuance of this issue, including workshops and information about privacy and the digital space, to demystify what is now at risk as people seek abortion care across the country.

Participants go into secure ‘voting booths’ and select a color or series of colors that align with their values. They place those colors, which function as votes, into a sealed envelope, and leave the voting booth to place the envelope in a ballot. Throughout the exhibit, staff members will open the ballot box to place the votes onto a wall, ensuring anonymity of voters. Each installation has shown that communities overwhelming support abortions and reproductive freedom, including in states where abortions are currently banned.

The colors are:

Light Blue: I have had an abortion

Yellow: I have had to leave my state, county, or regional area for an abortion.

Dark Blue: I support abortions

Light Green: I am or have been on birth control.

Dark Green: I support birth control.

Pink: I have used emergency contraceptives

Orange: I support emergency contraceptives

Purple: I am anti-abortion.

This project has been shown at the Project Empty Space, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, and has been on tour around the United States with Project Empty Space’s Body Freedom for Every(body).

This project was made possible under the Disobedience Toolkit Project (2023-current) by Ashley Molese and Caroline Sinders. Data artist and researcher Caroline Sinders and curator Ashley Molese are the maintainers and creators of The Disobedience Toolkit, a collaborative research project designed as an ongoing body of work discussing the security and privacy considerations around abortion. Issues around protecting one’s privacy as they seek abortion care remains a lesser–discussed risk across the United States, as rights and access to this medical care become more restrictive and criminalized. The Disobedience Toolkit is a generative set of resources for reproductive justice starkly contrasted by the shifting (regressing) political landscape illustrated by the ongoing surveillance & sharing of personal data with legislators who are creating systems of doxxing, and vigilante justice to enforce catastrophic restrictions to reproductive care. Projects within The Disobedience Toolkit  include Caroline Sinders’ A Series of Choices  (2023-Current), an interactive installation where visitors will vote for statements that relate to their experience with abortion and culminate in a large-scale, participatory data visualization.