The Payphone

The Payphone Project is a bicoastal exhibit that made it possible for two pedestrians unknown to each other to form a short-term connection. The telephone is a cultural artifact that conceptually and physically connects individuals within a vast communications grid. One phone was placed in the High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, California (just outside of LA) and another in the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City. Using a call restrictor, the two payphones could be used to call each other as well as other payphones located randomly around the country. The exhibition allowed, for example, a payphone user standing in the Socrates Sculpture Park to randomly connect with another person drying clothes in a Nebraska laundromat. When a connection is made with a random stranger who happens to answer the phone both individuals are subtly reminded of the physical interconnectedness that is made possible by the grid. In a way it seems like individualism is heightened through the experience of the piece while at the same time the notion of individuality can become threatened when viewed in the context of a highly interconnected collective. Additionally, the interaction of the participants is an exciting and unpredictable connection between the “real world” and art spaces. The art spaces became linked in a dialogue with the random, unsuspecting person. As apart of a future exhibition, I am working on designing and building informational kiosks that would provide information as to the physical connectedness of the gallery space with regional malls. This kiosk would include a phone that would connect art with shoppers. It is through this kiosk that connections are made between people and art.

• Mark Klassen

   
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