TEL-TALK @ Telephone Booth Gallery

TEL-TALK - art interventions in telephone booths

Book Launch and Exhibition 
Exhibition continues until July 14, 2012

Exhibition photographs available at
http://telephoneboothgallery.ca/tel-talk.html

The Tel-talk project brings together artists of varying backgrounds, from across the country, to perform in and or animate a telephone booth in response to themes surrounding public spaces, and the disappearance of traditional phone booths. Artists and writers were invited to contribute a site-specific installation, artwork, or short work of fiction, which references a unique telephone booth location. The installations began in September 2011 and continue through to July 2012. Over the last nine months, each installation was announced and documented on the Tel-talk blog (http://tel-talk.blogspot.ca/).

The Tel-talk project culminates in an exhibition of various works and photo documentations at the Telephone Booth Gallery in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood along with a book launch which outlines contributions to the project in (phone) book form under the Tightrope Books imprint. The project continues online with an open invitation to artists and writers to make their own art interventions.

Selected artists and writers (Tel-talkers) include: Barry Callaghan, Dyan Marie, Julie Voyce, Lizz Aston, Jessica Westhead, Otino Corsano, Tim Laurin, Sheila Butler, Steven Tippin, Stuart Keeler, Tara Cooper, Terry O'Neill and many more. Full list of participants and online: http://tel-talk.blogspot.ca/
Coordinated by: Paola Poletto, Liis Toliao and Yvonne Koscielak

Otino Corsano “Last Call”, 2012

Format:

The project “Last Call” consists of three audio pieces.

These sound works are cinematic constructions = film as sound.

Three actors helped with the voice work for these audio works.

Each actor was stationed at the Bell Telephone booth located on the North West corner of Finch Avenue and Bayview Avenue in Toronto.

They all called my home telephone from the payphone for each of the sound recordings. The actors’ dialogue was recorded both on a hand held voice recorder and on my home phone’s answering machine (except for one actor - only hand held recording was created)

The resulting tracks are edited in post-production into 3 tracks by sound engineer Walter Sawan in Vancouver.

The audio files are designed for presentation online and for public reception in a traditional gallery setting.

Significance:

Actors were asked to improvise a personal narrative metaphorically relating to the following theme: Bell Telephone booths are becoming extinct by the minute. The times we use them are growing smaller and yet the moments we require them are becoming more significant in our times of communication need. Accordingly, these private dialogues created in the moment by actors are meant to overshadow the eventual transformation of communication in the public sphere. This leaves us one last chance to creatively consider the influence of the telephone booth on our lives.

These creative telephone calls are in many ways our 'last call' - our metaphorical conversations with the vanishing telephone booth itself.

Process:

Actors were asked to record 4 to 7 telephone conversations from the booth with each take lasting an average of one minute in length. 

Actors ad-libbed all their lines. While these individually constructed dialogues were spontaneously delivered (no use of scripts), some set scenarios were planned in advance. These performed calls simulate a real telephone conversation – just as anyone would leave a quick message on a friend's answering machine. 

I wanted the final audio pieces to have the feel of audio movie trailers. 

Special Thanks:

Otino would like to thank the amazingly creative and generous actors who gave of their time and skills to contribute rich content to this project. Thank you to Maarika Pinkney, Emily Schooley and Ash for their excellent acting help. Thanks also to Liis Toliao and Colleen Osborn for their critical help in sourcing acting talent. Extra-special thanks to Walter Sawan for agreeing to bring his sound engineer expertise in creating the final mixed tracks. I am most grateful to Paola Poletto for inviting me to this project and her continuous support of the “Last Call” project especially in its most crucial stages.

- Otino Corsano, March 2012 

TELEPHONE BOOTH GALLERY 
3148 Dundas Street West - Toronto - Ontario - M6P 2A1
(The Junction, Dundas at St. John's Rd.)
T 647 270 7903 - www.telephoneboothgallery.ca

Contact: Sharlene Rankin, Director
sharlene@telephoneboothgallery.ca