What can participants expect?
On arrival – Participants are warmly greeted by the artists as they enter the waiting room where they read and sign a letter of consent acknowledging and agreeing to participate in the artwork. Information that contains, what it could bring up for them, duration, privacy and how it will begin and end. Two of the team will be onsite at all times, to sit with those who may need connection during their time or after, and there will be counselling material made available should they need it.
Participants will then watch a short personal video introduction on an iPad from the artists talking about why we have made this work and our hopes that each participant will experience peace, release and connection by interacting with the installations. Once briefed participants will have 25 minutes to explore the work alone in privacy.
Our hope is that every participant makes a call to someone, perhaps multiple people. Past participants were surprised with who they talked to, entering the experience, expecting to speak to someone specifically, then actually calling someone else. The Wind Telephone interaction is a one way conversation with themselves, there is no-one on the other end of the phone. It is a singular experience.
There will be five very separate spaces that are individually designed to stimulate the imagination, release memory and make people feel safe and secure. Depending on the venue available the spaces maybe five separate rooms with a foyer or alternatively, one large room with the installations in each corner, joined by a string of lights illuminating the path and connecting them to one another.
Space 1: Iconic English Telephone Booth originally designed and released from 1926 that looks and smells like it’s just come from a garden. It will have vines and an old coin operated wall mounted rotary phone. Participants can stand or sit on a stool. A soft subtle natural sound scape of birds and water can be heard. Up lights shine softly outside the external phone booth and micro fairy lights within.
Space 2: 1950’s Retro Kitchen with a ceramic jug, plates, cups and accoutrement for tea and coffee making. A plate of biscuits. Bakelite canisters, old cook books and real plants. An old newspaper open at the crosswords. A fifties standard lamp will light the space. There will be a record player with a selection of music for participants to choose from. The smell of soup is present and be seen simmering close by. There is a rotary phone.
Space 3: The Waiting Room is a more contemporary sterile space with modern leather couches set in an L shape. A glass top coffee table with an oil burner, mints and fake plant sit on the table. Books are artfully stacked around the space. Books on religion, philosophy, dying, grieving. A modern lamp illuminates the space and a water cooler with paper cups will be on hand. A cordless single line touch button basic telephone rests on the table.
Space 4: Children’s Fort is a kids cubby made out of house hold items, blankets, found objects like tables and chairs and an old portable wardrobe/clothes horse. It will be secured by tent ropes and sand bags and be the equivalent of a king size bed. It will be a smaller space but large enough to have wheel chair access. This space will be lit outside with fairy lights. The internal will be illuminated by a child’s night light. Yoga mats and blankets on the floor, bean bags cushion the internal space, it is soft and squishy. Littered with toys, colouring-in books and coloured pencils, a torch and a snack box with treats. There will be a tape player where participants can choose from a selection of music. There will be a toy rotary phone.
Space 5: The Writing Desk is a table and chair with pad and pen should the verbal words not flow and writing seems like an easier option. The space will have a letter box for participants to post their letter should they wish to leave their note and gift it to the artists.
On completion – Five mins before the end a gong is struck to remind participants that their time is nearly at an end. At the 25 min mark the gong is struck twice and the door is opened to signify its conclusion. Participants are then ushered to a separate external space, offered water or a cup of tea. Given information about grief services like Lifeline and Beyond Blue should they be interested. A feedback form will be offered that they can fill out if desired. Alternatively a feedback form can be emailed later. The team will then have 5 minutes to clean and reset the space for the next participant.
What is The Wind Telephone?
Is an immersive art installation that offers participants a creative space to connect with a passed loved one. Conceived and created by Danni Ashton, Ivano Del Pio and Mel King the work was inspired by the real life story of Japanese gardener Itaru Sasaki and his ‘Wind Phone’. Grieving for his deceased cousin Mr Sasaki began calling him on an abandoned telephone booth.
As artists Danni, Ivano and Mel share a common journey of passed family and wanted to explore the idea of recreating their own wind phone to connect with their lost loves. Through three years of research and development we have created an interactive art installation with four different creative spaces, all with phones, that allow participants to move between the installations and find a space, they can connect with, to make a call to their passed loved one.
How did we get here?
2011 – Tōhoku earthquake resulted in the deaths of at least 19,759 people most especially in tsunamis in the Tōhoku region, including over 1,200 people in Ōtsuchi (about 10 percent of the town’s population). Mr Itaru Sasaki subsequently opened the wind phone to the public to allow visitors to call their friends and family who had died in the disaster. It has since been visited by over 30,000 people. There are now replica phone booths in dozens of countries around the world.
2020 – During Covid, Ivano approached Mel and Danni to make a work. Danni directed us to listen to This American Life podcast about Mr Sasaki and The Telephone of the Wind. In discussion, the three of us realised that we shared significant family loss and grief.
2021 – We attended the Performing Lines – Tasmanian Artist Residency to pitch the idea of recreating a telephone booth like Mr Sasaki’s. It was met with excitement and interest from other participants and senior producers attending, encouraging us to pursue the idea further.
2021 – Annette Downe, Senior Producer at Performing Lines Tasmania introduced us to Western Australian educator and installation artist James Berlyn. Performing Lines Tas then funded us $1000 worth of on-line mentoring with James to help develop the idea, form and content of the project, as well as looking at its safety, ethics and logistics.
2022 – The Wind Telephone had a successful week long residency as Moonah Arts Centre, Hobart, culminating in a sharing with 12 friends and colleagues who gave us feedback about their experience. Instead of creating just one phone booth as originally thought, we made seven unique creative spaces/prototypes, all with phones. Each participant had 30 minutes alone to walk around the installations. Participants were also given a phone to record their calls and most gifted them to us, for research and documentation. We also offered each participant a 30 min feedback debrief session. Most participated in this.
2023 – We collated data from the residency and distilled its strengths and weaknesses and pitched to Junction Festival to be part of there 2024 program.
2024 – We premiered at Junction and sold out. It raised $340 for Lifeline Tas and we collected valuable data from feedback forms to use in the works next iteration.
What can participants expect to get from interacting with the Wind Telephone
The Wind Telephone is a contemporary offering of an ancient long held human need to express grief. We believe societally many of us have lost the sense of ritual around grief. There is often the assumption and drive to hurry back to our regular lives after someone has passed. The Wind Telephone creates a space for participants to slow down, reflect, remember and reconnect.
We believe the project has an intermediate benefit to the Tasmanian community as it encourages public participation and incorporates the wider public to interact with the arts and their community. There are also wellbeing benefits for the community as the projects provides support for community members to deal with grief and loss as a form of open chair therapy.
We are not trained counsellors but we have measures in place through our presence during each experience and our availability to chat and disperse support material after and connect those who need extra support with appropriate trained providers. Through the signed agreement on arrival, participants will understand that they are free to leave at any time and that we are there at all times to support them.
Tech specs
The Wind Telephone is a flexible in its set up and can be experienced in traditional gallery spaces on multi levels or halls. Ideally we require a 10m x 10m minimum space but we are flexible and can accommodate/ edit the work to fit in most larger spaces.
The room needs to be sound proof/ private and have access to heating. We also need access to an adjacent room to brief and debrief participants privately before and after their engagement with the work.
Accessibility is a top high priority.
