I saw a comedian on TV the other night claiming that crime was up in many cities because, with the advent of the mobile phone, Superman has no place to change anymore. If artist Nick Rodrigues’ vision came to pass, Superman would carry his booth with him, as would all of us. As Rodrigues explained on SensoryImpact:
“The Portable Cellular Phone Booth provides a visual image of the social sacrifices and opportunities to interact with one another lost due to our own self-involvement. The sculpture is a retractable phone booth that is carried on your back and can slide up and over your head to completely isolate you from society, kind of like the way a cell phone does. The action is fast and slick just like the flip action of a cell phone.”
Another artist, Jenny L Chowdhury, has a similar concept, a booth you zip yourself into to give your call the sense of importance and intentionality that climbing into a phone booth used to engender.
As the links on this we-make-money-not-art posting show, there seems to be a lot of recent art nostalgic for that old street corner staple, the now mostly extinct phone booth.