INTERVIEW: This game of ‘Telephone’ has gone global
Photo: Telephone is a new virtual exhibition featuring a game of “telephone” that has been played by nearly 1,000 artists. Photo courtesy of Satellite Collective / Provided by Michelle Tabnick PR with permission.
Satellite Collective’s new project, appropriately called Telephone, is a global game of “telephone” played by more than 950 artists across 70 countries. The message at the center of this project was passed from participant to participant via different art forms, whether it was a poem, painting, film or dance work, according to press notes.
Now, audience members can check in on the game thanks to an interactive virtual exhibition that displays these interconnected works. The exhibition comes more than a year after the game of telephone first began March 23, 2020.
Like other games of telephone, when a message is passed amongst players and inevitably transformed along the way, only a select few know the original message. The fascination of Telephone comes from the process of change that occurs when artists have a chance to leave their imprint on a message. In a way, this is the building of community art.
Interestingly, this game of telephone had several simultaneous threads occurring. So, for example, the message would sometimes be passed to two or three artists, who would send the game in varied directions. Further complicating the trajectory — and making it endlessly interesting — was the fact that the process was reversed halfway through the game. The result, after passing through the hands of nearly 1,000 artists, is one single work of art.
Satellite Collective and Nathan Langston first played and published a smaller version of Telephone in 2015, according to press notes. They felt a revival was needed when the world went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Langston, creator and director, about the expansive project. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What inspired you to create this project several years ago?
The first incarnation of Telephone was devised a decade ago because I had moved from Portland, Oregon, to Manhattan, New York, and felt so terribly lost alone. It seemed like a clever way to meet like-minded artists and make friends, and it worked! That first game, eventually brought to life by Satellite Collective as a digital exhibition in 2015, proved that the concept had value, not just for me as an individual, but for artists all over the world.
Could you ever imagine in those early days what this artistic experience would become?
In March 2020, imagination was all we had, but this game made sense as it required no physical contact and addressed our sudden loneliness and extreme isolation. We felt that the time was right for this game again, and with artists having played from 493 cities in 72 countries, that seems to have been true.
For the new iteration, what can audience members expect when they check out this online exhibition?
It’s like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, where you can click through a path of your own choosing from the original message to the final work. Then you can start over and create an entirely new pathway through the exhibition. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of directly connected pathways through the game, and it feels so good getting lost in its immensity.
What do you think Telephone says about humanity, and in particular, humanity during a pandemic?
In the most dark and difficult year of many of our lives (mass protests, wildfires, global pandemic, economic distress, the largest protests in history, the election), artists stepped up and did their job. When we look back on this abominable year, we will know that we created something of supernatural beauty. It is a hopeful thing to know that, when the worst of the worst comes, our underpaid, under-recognized, under-appreciated artists are fully equipped to do the work that needs doing.
When you see the many connections these participants have made, do you laugh? Furrow your brow? Cry? Become amazed?
With a furrowed brow, I laugh and laugh to the point of tears in amazement. I have no place left in my body for the feelings I feel about what this global community of strangers has achieved.
Do you believe in an expansive definition for what qualifies as art?
Yes. Oh, you wanted more. Art is so many things, and it’s wrong for anyone to try to define it for anyone else. But for me, it’s medicine — medicine for the body and the mind and the spirit, a medicine as vitally important as any vaccine. Truth told, it doesn’t matter so much what you call a thing so long as it makes life more alive.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Telephone, from Satellite Collective and Nathan Langston, is now available as an interactive online exhibition. Click here for more information.
