The Cabinet (of Justice)
A voting system where lived experience carries more weight than an equal vote.
The Cabinet is a ritual that sheds light on the spectrum of experiences, vulnerabilities, and perspectives that exist behind every vote.
Rather than producing a simple binary outcome, the project challenges the assumption that every vote carries the same weight in people’s lives and invites participants to reflect on the unequal impact that decisions can have on different members of a community.
YEAR
2026
TEAM
Abby Lerner Sojung Im Svend Lauge Steen Schrøder
CLIENT
Drakonheart
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
The project was designed for Drakonheart, a pedagogical experimentarium that breaks away from traditional ideas about how children learn best. Housed in the Sostrup Castle in Norddjurs, they invite neurodivergent children who often stand outside of the traditional school system into an alternative learning community and environment.
THE RITUAL
We wanted to speculate how justice and equality would look like in this world if the neurodivergent were at the forefront of shaping it. When an issue is raised to the community, the cabinet is opened. Next, everyone is randomly given an object.
THE NEGOTIATION
Then, with a partner, you weigh your objects on the lesser scales. You discuss your thoughts on the issue, hear the other’s opinion, and together you decide if you should switch. You decide if the weight of your object aligns with the weight of your stake in the matter.
THE VERDICT
Finally, once the community has finished with it’s discourse, all objects are weighed on the Great Scale. Depending on the outcome, the minority can have influence over the topic when there are people who this means much more to. The scale functions as a visible indicator that makes these differences visible.
THE WEIGHT OF THE MATTER
The voting objects are unfamiliar and ambiguous, inviting one's personal interpretation. The weight of the objects also function as an open-ended symbolic medium. For one participant, weight may represent impact. For another, emotion, conviction, care, or responsibility. Rather than standardising these meanings, The Cabinet makes their coexistence visible.