I really like this recent creative work by Blast Theory:Soft Message. They put a request out (which I published here too),on BBC Radio 3,for people to register their interest in being called by them. They called them over a week period and then broadcast them in a 30min show on December 7th. Blast Theory put some detail about the calls in their newsletter:
The calls catch people drunk at parties,in art galleries and out on the street. We hear them arguing,shouting at their cats or as their friends grab the handset. They open their lives to the listener,they reveal secrets and declarations of love. From the first call to a Mancunian goth pretending to be Romanian we follow these four people through a week in their lives.
The conversations use the intermittent,slow motion nature of the interview to explore the things that are rarely said,rarely heard.
And,most importantly,we hear the voices of people alone,confessing,contemplating,opening up.
The programme explores the ways in which radio and telephones lend themselves to a certain kind of intimacy.
The programme asks how is the rise of the mobile phone affecting how we talk to one another and what does it mean to talk to strangers?
I wish I heard it.
