In this blog post, we’ll talk about the origins of the imagery for our round “Home Phone” windows, intergenerational play, and the public engagement that helped us imagine Play It By Ear.

When we began working on this project, we were invited to develop a “playful” and “discoverable” artwork to engage families and children. But when we visited the park, we immediately noticed how many more seniors, adults, and teenagers use Butler Memorial Park than kids. We began to consider how people of all ages can play together.

Telephones are a nostalgic invitation for multiple generations to connect, and older seniors often use the telephone as a way to entertain themselves, pass the time, keep in touch with friends and family, and feel connected. This was one of the reasons we decided to use telephones in Butler Memorial Park.

In the book, Age-Inclusive Public Space, we learned about different ways that seniors can be better empowered to participate in society. There were social programs, accessibility improvements to design and architecture, and even playgrounds for seniors, but one of the ideas that surprised us the most was about passive participation through observation with the blending of private and public spaces. The example they used was the idea of a window overlooking a kindergarten playground. Not all seniors want (or have the energy) to play with children directly, but many seniors feel they are participating in the world by simply watching children play through a window.

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Part of our motivation for Play It By Ear was making opportunities for folks of all ages to participate directly and indirectly in the making of the artwork. There have been opportunities to impact imagery, share anecdotes, write notes, leave voicemails, have conversations, and/or watch the chaos unfold from afar. We believe interactive artworks are more interesting when not everyone has to engage in the same way – ideally, there should be layers to meet your unique level of interest and ability.

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For example, early in our process we set up a hotline that members of the public could call to leave us a voicemail answering a few questions about how they connect. More recently, we invited community members to contribute imagery to the round “home phone” windows, located where the rotary dial would normally be.

_{A poster we circulated in the Butler Memorial Park community}

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We wanted Play It By Ear to be engaging, even for people who are not using the phones firsthand. You can choose to watch others play. You can enjoy the colourful aesthetics of the installation in the park. Or you can discover the flat-pack dioramas Caitlind (co-artist) made for the circular windows in the face of every phone.

Friends, neighbours, and community members were invited to submit photos of “a place that feels like home.” We postered the neighbourhood with an invitation, put out the call on social media, and published an ad in the local neighbourhood newsletter, delivered in print to houses throughout West Jasper Place.

People submitted photographs, and we chose 13 of the most intriguing images to recreate using layers of acrylic and vinyl.

Any people in the photos were transformed into anonymous silhouettes, cut out of iridescent dichroic. The vinyl was colour-coded to match the 6 colours of the telephone pillars themselves.

For those who prefer not the use the telephones in Butler Memorial Park, those who cannot hear, or those who are simply curious enough to look more closely, these little windows offer a hint about the concept behind the artwork: these are HOME phones. Each window depicts a different way that someone in the community thinks about a place where they feel or felt at home.

This feeling of home is especially important in Butler Memorial Park, a place that many community members treat like an outdoor living room. These “home phones” are an attempt to share a feeling of connection and belonging, in some small way, with the community that uses the park – from one neighbour to another.

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There are still ways to participate! Over the coming years, we’ll be revisiting the park many times to collect the voicemails that visitors leave on the answering machines connected to each telephone. You can choose whether you want to make a call, talk to a stranger, watch someone else play, or leave us a message after the tone…

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Special thanks to the friends and community members who sent photos of “a place that feels like home.” We loved receiving each and every image, and regardless of whether your photos were used or not, we send our gratitude and appreciation. Thanks for sharing your many homes with us.