The Phantasy Phone (images above) by Casey Smith connects the internet (users emails to a specified email address) to a pay phone through custom hardware with text to speech software. By not disclosing the email sender, the intention is to provide both those online with an anonymous communication medium to disclose fantasies as well as those within the gallery environment a ‘voyeuristic’ means of intercepting them. The device:

contains an Internet enabled microcontroller and its own email address. The phone will ring periodically and choose one of the most recent received fantasies. Passing public, if choosing to answer the phone, will hear the text of the email read to them through the handset. While currently sitting in my workspace, the Phantasy Phone will soon be installed in a local bar.

What I particularly like about this work is the coupling of two networked technologies, one is in many ways the ancestor of the other, and moving from one communication context to another which without explanation to those using the phone within the gallery is invisible and almost unimaginable.