#thephoneboxproject

The PhoneBox Project came to life with one particular concern in mind. 

How often, while creating smarter and more engaging urban landscapes do we need to resort to the use of the digital medium? What is a smarter city anyway? It is, ofcourse driven by big data. It works better with a stronger response platform so as to tweak its workings to be better tailored to needs and living choices.

However, a smart city also re-engages people with the things they've overlooked in the past. The joy of digital engagement is that very often, physical structures do not need to prop up in our landscape to define newer interactions. So there's more information and lesser clogging of physical space. However, we've often debated the use of smartphones on the street and how, somewhere - in order to interact with the city you live in, you literally do need to LOOK up. 

To look at the city around you and not constantly stare at a screen. To observe and take in the smaller pleasures of every day, the wail of the sirens (we so hate in London), the trees that have stood witness to time, the myriad architectural styles and that odd corniche detail you missed when you last passed by.

Everything about a city and its multiple layers is information, and everything tells a story. 

It is in this choice to keep some of the interactions analogue, where we demand the encounter be all about needing to stop, read and take a moment - is where we've seen magic happen.

Of course, there's only as much time someone has, to stop.

Of course they'd miss some of it.

And of course, they'd want to explore beyond the immediate surroundings the analogue installations allow us to talk about.

It is here, that we switch to the screens. To technologies we've embraced and communication channels long established.

On these screens inside Solarbox, sit secrets about the neighbourhood that you'd have to walk towards to discover. You cannot see these places spoken of, from the box.

The captions tell you a little secret about something close by, somewhere you could walk to, when you walk away from the SolarBox having charged your phone. It may be enroute to where you're headed or close enough for a detour.

We're collaborating with Solarbox as their Community and City Engagement Partners to bring disused phonebox structures back into the lives of London through stories and secrets.

Solarbox is a social enterprise funded by UnLtd, LSE Entrepreneurship and Siemens led by the affable Kirsty Kenney and Harold Craston to turn phoneboxes into solar charging points for mobile phones on the go. It's a simple idea that London's needed for a while now!

Our work at the studio is centred around making meaning and the PhoneBox Project ties in simply into the SolarBox fold. Our installations of stories on the glass as well as screen captions allow the user to discover the neighbourhood and its histories while they wait for the phone to charge.

There's many and more to come! Watch this space.