For the purposes of this art project, klismos represents a seat at the table, in the town hall, or at the legislature. However, it can also represent instruments of political participation from other cultures, such as the talking stick of Northwest Coast First Nations.

Klismos represents political empowerment; voice; power. In a democracy, it represents self-sovereignty and ability to bind oneself in agreements. It also represents equality; a leveling of the playing field at the table of political negotiations.

Art Design Parameters

This art piece will represent participation in a decision. Each art piece will be mutated into a series of unique, slightly different variations on the original piece. A series might be from 50 to 1,000 in number

• Each art piece should be unique. This might be accomplished through scratches, marks, discolourations as well as systematic variations of colours or features on an original template of a chair.
• The chair should be empty, although there can be other characters and features in the art piece.
• The chair is not the throne of a ruler; but rather a seat at a collective decision process where everyone gets to bring their own chair and sit on whatever they like.
• There should be a plaque on the chair where the owner's name will appear. This is like a sponsorship.
• There should also be a small representation of the art piece that can be used as a profile picture. This need not be unique.
• The chairs might be programmed to evolve over time, or with use.
• Although the core theme is a familiar object, this is not to restrict abstraction to higher level concepts such as equality, empowerment, etc.
• Should be a standard graphical format, including 2D, 3D and video. If its a 2D piece ideally it can be at a high enough resolution for printing and framing.

A variety of approaches are possible to create the variations needed:

• Draw a single chair, and create variations digitally by adding filters, layers and masks and sprouting variations. Ethelo design staff can assist with the mechanics of creating variations.
• Draw several chairs, and make custom variations in each case.
• Draw one chair and keep modifying it, painting over and taking pictures as you go.
• Quickly sketch 100 chairs with a pencil, doodling.

There is also an opportunity for story-telling. The chair can be merely a feature in a larger narrative. The theme is democracy and empowerment. For example, there might be a creature of some kind standing/sitting by the chair, a “democracy butler” or executive assistant ready to help the participant exercise their political power.

Note: although it need not have a visible manifestation, each Klismos will also contain a data library, including a record of all its previous owners, as well as the list of all previous eDemocracy processes it was used in.