Oral History Booth

In 2017, one of the Boston Artists in Residence asked me to help them put together an incredible project. They had been recording oral histories of seniors around the city, and wanted incorporate them into a vintage phone booth from the 1940s. Naturally, I was itching to do it. This really hits all my highlights: nostalgia, history, and stories.

Our plan was to let visitors “dial up” each story on an old three-slot rotary payphone, so I refurbished an old one we managed to find. I also designed and created electronics that let us insert audio clips from an SD card, and assign each of them a separate phone number. The end result was a really unique and personal way to hear neighbors tell their stories from their lives in Boston, and share their memories of living in the city decades ago.