Play It By Ear is an interactive sound sculpture inviting a neighbourhood to talk to itself.
13 short-distance telephones connect people across Butler Memorial Park in Edmonton/Amiskwaciwâskahikan.
Play It By Ear is a series of brightly coloured telephone pillars placed throughout Butler Memorial Park. Each pair of telephones is connected by looping ‘land lines’ curling underfoot. Park visitors can pick up any telephone and a matching phone will ring elsewhere in the park – like a hard-wired walkie-talkie system. If nobody picks up, you’ll be connecting to a voicemail where you can leave a message for your neighbours – and listen to the messages they’ve left for you! The phones invite playful possibilities for encounter through an invisible network of connections that mirrors the community of West Jasper Place.
We decided to use traditional rotary-style telephones (rebuilt from weather-resistant materials) because when we first visited Butler Memorial Park, we realized how many people use it as an outdoor living room. The benches are like couches and the pathways are like hallways. We wanted to create a positive and playful addition to this domestic park by using telephones as points of connection between people who might not talk otherwise.
We were thinking about play for all ages. Many seniors visit Butler Memorial Park on a daily basis. How do seniors play? One of the ways is through banter and conversation. Many seniors use telephones as playful devices for keeping in touch with family, calling their friends, collecting the latest gossip, or learning the news. The importance of the telephone was affirmed during the pandemic, when people couldn’t see each other face-to-face. Play It By Ear is a way of connecting kids, seniors, and everyone in-between for moments of fun, nostalgia, and conversation.
Who do you still call on the telephone? Can “retro” technology make public space feel more like home? Is it possible to turn strangers into neighbours through moments of casual conversation? How do you keep in touch? Let’s play it by ear!
This project was commissioned by the Edmonton Arts Council and The City of Edmonton for Butler Memorial Park in West Jasper Place.
Play It By Ear is located on Treaty 6 Territory, home to Indigenous peoples including the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Ojibway/ Saulteaux/Anishinaabe, Inuit, and many others. We listen to these landlines with curiosity, gratitude, and a desire for better connections between all Treaty people.
Play It By Ear 