I have just completed (May 27th 2024) this video essay. It says all there is to be said but there are probably more concise ways to say it (see below).
This is a one minute audio introduction to the project prepared for the BBC but never used.
This is three minute video introduction to the research context of the project. I won a prize at University of Hull for this.
This blog is about a red telephone box installed outside my house in a quiet lane in the Yorkshire countryside. The box has an old dial telephone and when you dial a computer simulation of my voice can be heard performing my stories and poetry. Passersby can pop in and listen. I want it to be like a tiny theatre. I began work on it when i was diagnosed with incurable cancer in 2014.
Since the project began I have been ill periodically but doing my day job at the university also I have been very lazy and often distracted by easier things than creating a piece of site specific interactive audio art, so to be frank it has taken longer than it should. Many of the ideas recorded here have have long since been superseded by better ideas, often because the ‘audiences’ (passers-by) didn’t respond in the way I hoped.
Recently I have felt the need to be ‘kept on track’ as I am easily diverted and find it hard to stick with one idea when so many other possibilities present themselves. For completeness I also wanted to document the problems encountered and provide an archive of technical materials and links that hitherto have been scattered over hand written notes and various computers.
I also have an anxiety about preserving this work, as the result of the cancer diagnosis and I suppose this site seeks to assuage that anxiety.
(Actually that’s a lie – I secretly want the phone box to be permanent piece of art so really it’s an attempt at immortality – a poor mans Pyramid.)