Project 1: Phone Home

For my first project I wanted to focus on the evolution of the telephone. I have always been intrigued that this device was once a rarity in people's lives and now they are ever-present.

I had an idea for a phone sculpture that depicted the various styles of telephones over the years, from rotary to cellular. I had imagined the phones melting and morphing into each other, but when I went shopping for used phones and discovered they just aren't as cheap as I had imagined I chose a slightly less destructive route (so I could use my own phones).

The phone tower was created.

To express the truly disruptive aspect of the telephone I wired four of the phones to ring on command when I pushed a button. The device can be seen below.

In addition to this I set my cell phone to go off during my presentation. So there you have it, disruptive evil phones that were once so harmless, but have been morphed into the evil that they are now. (Just so you know I actually love my cell phone and can never be without it, but that's not the point.)