Multiphonic Connections
2022
Thank you for calling Multiphonic Connections
We make the in-audible audible.
Press 0 for your initial listening calibration exercise
Press 1 for sounds from inside the human body
2 for far, far away, cosmic sounds
3 for sounds from deep below you
4 for sounds made by animals
5 for sounds that manifest very slowly
6 for sounds that happen extremely fast
7 for very quiet sounds
Press star at anytime to return to this menu
And 9 at anytime to leave a voicemail message
From the 18th to the 21st June 2020 Multiphonic Connections existed as a dynamic telephone experience that explored sound as a medium to create alternative futures with technology.
Participants were encouraged to create their own unique ‘sonic fictions’ by interacting with a fictional agency over the phone. Navigating the options common to a customer-service call, each number revealed a distinct fragment of narrative that evokes consideration of how to nurture emotional intelligence in machines. Could intertwining collective voices and bodies together with digital technologies formulate new ways of listening, being heard and communicating with each other?
A ‘voicemail’ service offered the opportunity to leave anonymous stories, responses and musings, which were then be collected as per the participants’ inclinations. In addition to which callers are encouraged to feedback via the social media channels of Empathy Loading.
Commissioned by Empathy Loading, an online project exploring empathetic relationships between humans and networked non-humans. The project is developed by students from the MA Curating Contemporary Art Programme Graduate Projects 2020, Royal College of Art, London, in partnership with Furtherfield Gallery’s Love Machines summer programme.
Voicemail Messages:
Quote from voicemail: