Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy has inspired a legion of supporters from the artistic community. From the infamous Will.I.Am “Yes We Can” video to the heavyweights like Wyclef Jean performing in Denver for the DNC to the ubiquitous Shepherd Fairey posters, those with creative bones have rallied behind the Illinois senator and created art inspired by the politician. Artists and fans have used the internet, YouTube videos, or other viral content to spread the word of Barack, pushing stories up the hotlist at Digg and helping articles spread like a California wildfire on Facebook.

But with around 90% of all Facebook users in the United States (roughly 20 of 22 million as of January 2008) on a site that has averaged 250,000 new members a day since the start of 2007 falling into the under 30 and college-educated demo, are all of these stunning endorsements simply preaching to the young, liberal-minded choir?

When we heard about Jared Lovejoy and Lisa Chacón’s “Video Tagging” Obama-rama tour around western battleground states like Nevada and Colorado, we were immediately intrigued by the premise. Get a powerful projector, get in a van, and drive around playing all of this content on the sides of buildings to make sure people are getting a chance to see all that’s out there. Lovejoy’s project was almost like bringing a Twitter feed to life.

“What we love about what we’re doing is that it takes the sense of connection to an ‘idea’ that you have when you watch an MCYogi video on YouTube at home, and extends it to the streets so that it becomes a shared experience with others as well,” Lovejoy said.

But taking it one step further, he speaks of a convergence between digital and earthly analog worlds: “The power of the internet and social technologies like this is that they are being used to mobilize the people’s movement,” he said. “That’s what this was about for us, seeing people connect with each other and with this content which was originally only available virally on the internet. We use every day networking technologies (Facebook, Blogs, twitter, Youtube) to bring people together in 3D and catalyze interactions and motivate people to get involved. Ideas inspire people but ideas alone don’t vote.”

We caught up with Lovejoy via email:

P+P: As you tour across battleground states in the West, what have been your plans logistically to avoid preaching to the choir and making sure this content reaches people who have never seen it before?
JL: We keep it open to a wide cross-section by hitting areas that are mainly about traffic, not demographics. We’ve done our show outside of bars and restaurants, near college campuses, and interesting areas that lend themselves to a surprise encounter with what we are doing. Our “Video Tagging” concept is meant to explore the iconic nature of the HOPE poster created by Shepard Fairey. This poster created by a street artist has captured the spirit of the entire vision of the campaign. So, yes, it is promoting Obama and we are all for that, but equally as important, it represents the hope an entire generation has for the future of this country. Tagging has been the voice of many young people for decades, in many communities it’s the only voice some kids have. It’s a way of claiming space, demanding in the face of crass overly advertised landscapes what WE want to see—that this is everyone’s space. It is about claiming, for a moment, public space and capturing the public’s attention. The Video Tag is a HUGE, non-destructive, ephemeral, yet impactful, statement that everyone “gets” right away. Tagging is like a coded message to whoever has eyes to see and it will evolve but it will never go away. People have been tagging since the dawn of time with drawings, images and icons. Neo-graffiti like this challenges us to explore our concepts of art, public space and awareness. Artists like Jenny Holzer have used light to create thought provoking graffiti to international acclaim. We thought since Shepard is a legendary street artist, using his image to paint the skylines was an appropriate homage not only to Obama and the vision of HOPE, but also to the long history of street art and tagging as a way of reaching out beyond words to other human beings. We have managed to tag every state capitol building we’ve come across and create video tags the size of 20-story buildings that dominate the visual landscape. Even if the tag is only up for a a few minutes, we document it all, so it manages to reach a pretty vast spectrum of people.

P+P: Do you find that your events are leaning more towards Obama-themed gatherings for Obama supporters or that you are drawing crowds that are legitimately on the fence on these states?
JL: Its been pretty random. We find that the crowds are self selecting, Obama supporters love it and tend to stick around. People who are open or on the fence are drawn in by the inspiring vibe. The show is completely positive—we don’t spend any airtime slamming McCain, so its not about “us and them.” It’s just about the issues and all the cool inspiring art being made in support of Obama. A few people might shout “McCain!” as they walk by, or simply resist engaging with us. People are  surprised by the spectacle and often want to know if it’s being paid for by the Obama campaign. When everyone (Obama supporters included) finds out that it’s paid for solely by us and by kind donations from supporters, they are more inspired because of that. That was our hope in taking this on the road indie style—we wanted other people to get creative too, see all the different creative things people are doing and go do their own thing to help.

P+P: What do you make of the overwhelming support for Obama in the American artistic community?
JL: What’s unique in our eyes is that in the midst of what may be the most fear oriented period in decades, people are hungry for vision. Obama inspires people, he’s a mix of Kennedy, MLK and every visionary that has been lost to the world in the recent past. Artists from all over the world are making positive art about Obama. It’s not just American—that’s what is so amazing —this is affecting the entire world. It’s a positive movement, it’s not Anti-Bush or McCain. For instance, there’s one piece that is a montage of art made for the Manifest Hope show in Denver hosted by Shapard Fairey. In that montage there is just a minute or less of some pieces that are Anti-Bush and Anti-McCain/ Palin, and we had our most vocal negative feedback of the entire trip, but it was from two Obama supporters telling us how they thought we shouldn’t stoop to showing anything negative about the other side. They are the ones that gave us the “No Hate in ‘08″ line we use in the blog. What makes Obama’s campaign radical is that it is boldly positive, intelligently optimistic, and takes the high road. People want that right now because they are actually sick of the cynicism and fear that’s been jamming the airwaves since 9/11.

P+P: Do you think that this support has been successful before you started the tour?
JL: Absolutely, the Will I Am video inspired millions of people, that speech will go down in history, and he was a genius to make it into a song. We felt we were simply responding to a wave of incredible work being done by artists, our artistic contribution is Cultural Engineering, taking it to the streets, catalyzing spontaneous connections between real people in real time.

P+P: How has the tour enhanced its success?
JL: In this election every VOTE counts, literally. We hope we’ve inspired a few people to vote and to get involved. I think we’re doing that.

P+P: Have you been contacted by any of the artists whose work you are displaying?
JL: Yes, we have. We are doing a performance with MC Yogi at an election night event we recently got invited to in Mountain View, CA. We met him through mutual friends in our initial call to artists for content. We’ve had a few things sent to us and everyone that is aware of our efforts seems very thrilled and grateful.

P+P: The Obama campaign?
JL: I was trained as a Deputy Field Organizer by the Obama campaign and it was that training that got me inspired because they wanted us to get out there and do something, anything to get people inspired and make genuine connections. I’d never heard a political group talk that way before and I’ve done events for Clinton several times in the past. So NO we are not affiliated in the way of being funded by the campaign but we are definitely in alignment. We stop at Obama campaign offices and do shows for volunteers whenever we can, too. There are thousands of volunteers working all throughout the swing states right now, so we’ve had a good time “inspiring the base” as well.

P+P: What did they say?
JL: Our best nod of appreciation was being asked a week into our tour to come play for the Mountain View/Bay Area election night party. We hooked them up with MC Yogi as well, thought it would make a killer show.

P+P: Do people outside of the 18-29 demographic who are attending your events “get” the content?
JL: The message of is trans-generational. It’s about a psycho graphic not a demographic, so yes there are people of all ages that get it for sure. Thats one of our favorite things about this tour, there is such a wide diversity of material so we can shift the playlist to rock the kids with hip hop, funk or dance music, or make it more mellow for different audiences. We have an all-Spanish playlist that we showed in Denver outside of a Latin night at a night club and entertained the crowds waiting to get in. The Will.i.am video almost always brings people to tears, regardless of age, almost every time we play it. (It still brings us to tears every time!)

P+P: Have you encountered any heated opposition from McCain supporters who happen upon your events?
JL: Last night in Albuquerque was the most heated opposition we’ve encountered, but it was just some loud comments on one guy’s part mostly to be heard over the music. When he realized it wasn’t resonating enough with anyone around him, and that he couldn’t instigate any kind of interruption, he just walked off.

P+P: Had they already seen the content, or was that their first time?
JL: He seemed unaware of the content, but was clearly annoyed at its popularity. The more people had fun the more he seemed pissed. It was funny to watch, he hung out for a while before complaining and when he did he was surprisingly childish about it.

P+P: Any interference from local authorities?
JL: We’ve been asked to either leave or turn down the volume on the sound system by police and security in response to noise complaints. There are laws about amplified sound, so it’s hard to tell if it’s politically motivated. The cops are usually pretty cool, and we just move to the next location. The weirdest incident was when a guy in a black suit showed up on the roof of a parking garage in Reno saying quickly that he was an Obama “delegate” and warning us that security guards from Fitzgerald’s Casino were on the way. We were pretty much done, so we left without ever seeing these guards.

P+P: Do you think it was at all politically motivated?
JL: Hard to say, possibly in the case of the man with the black suit, and a security guard last night that we talk about in the blog. For the most part its been surprisingly mellow on that front.

P+P: What is your general sense for each of the states you have visited and how they are going to lean on election day?
JL: Nevada—turning Obama. People seemed very positive in Reno, thousands of volunteers, very successful early voting campaign, lots of great feedback on our shows. Utah—very positive feedback, Obama folks say the country will be surprised with the Democratic turn out, lots of Republicans voting for Obama. Supposed to be a lot closer than people expect. Colorado—Denver had that massive rally. Everyone feels strongly that Obama is taking CO, the early vote network there has been very successful as well. New Mexico—45K showed up for Obama and 1500 showed up for McCain, ‘nough said.

Tags: jared lovejoy, obamarama tour, will.i.am