The Payphone Memorial (公衆電話記念日)
2007 ‧ Public telephone booths across Kyoto
- Activist photo op ‧ momentary landmarking ‧ negotiation of loss ‧ creative surrender ‧ action art
In collaboration with Haruo Kondo, Justin Ellis, Miwa Kitaike, Karin-san, Tamami Ishihara, Makiko Hori, Takaki-san and Ryou Yamazaki, Edgar Franz, Miyuki Koichi, Rumiko Kawaii, Miki Matsumoto, Ted Taylor, John Einarsen, and Tamae Isoda Naido, Ayumi Matsuzaka.
Nine soon to be dismantled payphones were transitorily converted into destinations of shared memory and photoworthy moments. People were prompted to suggest their favourite payphone to have their professional souvenir photo taken and celebrate a relational piece of public furniture and last resort lifeline—before it was too late. In a world of increasingly connected individuation (detached networking), the Payphone Memorial was a streetwise activation for the art of living and the desire for more personal, face-to-face human relations.
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