Schnurtelefon-Netz / String Telephone Web

Schnurtelefon-Netz / String Telephone Web

Performance, Kulturakademie Tarabya, Istanbul, April 2020

Duration: appx. one hour

Our contemporary landscape is increasingly shaped by digital communication media and social media platforms, tools that promise simplified communication, accessible knowledge, and shared perspectives, influencing both our professional and social lives. However, the digital realm is also a breeding ground for contradictory and often baseless information, highlighting the potential of these platforms to both empower and destabilize. The Covid-19 pandemic starkly illuminated this duality, as crucial health information disseminated through these channels became intertwined with misinformation.

“String Telephone Web / Schnurtelefon-Netz / Karton Bardak Telefon Ağı” was a performance enacted at the Kulturakademie Tarabya in Istanbul, a deliberate simplification of the intricate digital network rendered in analogue form. The fragile and unclear audio of the string telephone web became the engine for the rapid mutation of information. Passed from one participant to the next, even concise sentences fractured and shifted, sometimes by chance, other times twisted into their antithesis through the conscious exploitation of auditory imprecision. This began as a lighthearted experiment, ultimately morphing into a stark and unsettling commentary on the distortions inherent in modern digital communication.