Video Pool welcomed residents of Winnipeg to talk to
strangers via two intriguing new media projects by Germaine Koh.
Call was an interactive installation involving a hacked vintage rotary-dial
telephone that connected immediately to one of several volunteers as
soon as the receiver is lifted. Participants were invited to experience
the unique opportunity of striking up a conversation about anything or
everything with an anonymous individual at the other end of the line.
Relay was a subtle intervention that combined the lonely signal of a flashing
navigation beacon, a city electrical systems, and the invisible
communications networks that surround us. A utilitarian light fixture
enigmatically flashed – in Morse code – short text messages (SMS)
received on a designated mobile phone number. Locally, the light would
operate as a sort of bulletin board conveying news from near and far,
and providing opportunities for sociability and local messaging in the
immediate area and across the city. The beacon merged early
technologies for communication and navigation with some of the more
contemporary methods by which information and desire flow today.
Call and Relay was presented thanks to generous support provided by:
