One of the motivations behind Futel is to produce useful items out of artifically worthless detritus that was once valuable. We hope to produce a small effort in reversing the fake entropy of industrial life by intercepting complex manufactured objects before they hit the landfill or the recycler at the end of their intended lifecycle, combining them with other junk, turning them into something new, and putting them back in people’s faces.
The apparent prosperity of today relies on a mountain of kipple which we are supposed to ignore, and we need to make that visible again. And it’s just fun to use trash. What feelings should be engendered by from the art and gadgets and shiny stuff that we first world residents get to play with? Should we be glad that they were manufactured and shipped here so we could enjoy them for a week and then discard them? Will our grandchildren get to drink the heavy metals that leach from them in the landfill? Will they fashion crude spears and talismans from them?
Well, great, we find fulfillment in what we are doing, but more importantly, any worthwhile public project is going to need to relate to those who will experience it. Our installations are made to be put on the street and used by whoever is walking down the sidewalk. They will only be successful if the people in the neighborhood want to use them. We could be installing sculptures made from recycled materials, uplifting geegaws to inspire and distract the people. Instead we created a phone company.
It is good that we have convinced ourselves that we are doing well, or at least good at what we are doing. This must be the part where we are patting ourselves on the back while making oblique comments about the mote in the eye of some artist not clever enough to use a telecommunications network as their medium. Damming rivers to power the word processors for our self-congratulatory essays. This city is so fucked, this whole world is so fucked these days, that any project needs to consider whether it’s a good way for its participants to spend their remaining time. We don’t really know whether we’re doing the right thing by installing free payphones, maybe we should turn them into barricades or battering rams or something instead. Until then, please enjoy and utilize our phones, and call your mom!
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