Oh tin can phone, why do you hold so much knowledge in your metallic ridges?

We assembled many a tin can phone for CONSPIRE, and we chose it to represent the event. CONSPIRE was all about communication – artists and musicians collaborating two to a room – so we drew a parallel there; one person transfers ideas to another, and there’s an exchange based on sound. What’s more, the venue — The Martin Building, a revamped 1920′s hotel turned apartments — is urban and interactive at once like this soup can technology. Residents meet up through gatherings like CONSPIRE, and the building borders the city, equipped with rusty (yet charming) fire escapes and shining wood floors. To us, the tin can phone seemed a perfect fit.

The journey to CONSPIRE was an enlightening one… A note about the tin can phone – it doesn’t work that well. We tried it (some of us for the first time) – we ended up with circles imprinted on our cheeks and laughed more than we heard. But what gave it more meaning was the artist statement from Room #23′s Keikichi Honna. His broken English communicated more than what we were able to initially:

“Tin can phone” may represent communications, or symbolize community for younger generations of i-phone/skype users.  But not for old schoolers like myself.  It’s a fond memory of my childhood.
Funny thing is this needs a partner, which has plenty of incidents of miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Funnier still is it needs to keep tension between us for our voices being heard.”

So cheers to communication and miscommunication. May our voices be heard and may we all CONSPIRE to create.