I have added a new interactive project to my ongoing collection of web-based experiments and prototypes at oerum.org. With the Danish general election coming up on March 24, the latest piece is titled The Other Citizenship Test (Den anden indfødsretsprøve).
To become a Danish citizen, applicants must pass a highly debated multiple-choice test on Danish society, culture, and history. “The Other Citizenship Test” is an unofficial, alternative counter-exam.
Disguised under the fictional government agency SIRI*, this interactive web project perfectly adopts the visual language and rigid logic of the official state test. However, the curriculum has been entirely replaced.
Here, you will not be tested on the kings of the 1700s or which year a specific movie won an Oscar. Instead, you are tested on the histories often left out of the official narrative. The questions cover the early labor movement and women’s rights, centuries of migration that shaped the country, as well as self-organizing, experimental literature, and anti-authoritarian movements.
Furthermore, the test breaks its own rules to question the premise of its existence by asking if it is possible to put national belonging into a formula. The test takes 45 minutes. You need 36 correct answers to pass. Good luck.
go to oerum.org
