project plan
background
In the past, phone booths adorned the streets. Glass cabins, about a square meter in size. It contained a door. You’d step in, pick up the receiver, drop in coins, and dial a number.
urgency
We live in a time when people pay rather much attention to their phones—mobile phones. We assume this statement does not need to be explained. Possibly, even likely, you’re reading this proposal on your mobile device. We believe it’s time to give people some space, literally, to take a break from their phones. How? Where?
Proposal
We’re bringing back the phone booths. Outside the booth, one leaves their mobile to charge. Inside: nothing. Just an old phone. The cords cut. One picks up the receiver, presses it to the ear, and gazes outside.
Rita Hoofwijk will be writing a lot this month. She’s in residence at the Groninger Museum, where she’s creating a text and recording it. Together with sound artist Andreas Oscar Hirsh and curator Clare Molloy, she’s working on Soundings, an installation loosely inspired by the Japanese wind phone. Soundings will premiere in September.