CONCEPT:

     Off The Grid (Staycation), room design for Wonder World 2019: Digital Utopia — an immersive and conceptual based installation using themes of technology, escapism and detachment to illustrate that no matter how hard we try, we are never able to fully escape our technological cultural climate. Off The Grid challenges the idea of a desired “getaway”, questioning whether we can ever truly disconnect or unplug.
 

     Similar to the youthful game of holding up a plastic cup to your ear to hear the ocean, the payphones serve as a vehicle of dual meaning: one being that technology allows us to escape into a carefully curated digital world of our own making, but also forcefully binds us to the harsh connective reality.

     The focal point of the room are these authentic urban pay phones that loop a tropical soundscape. These repurposed artifacts are anchored in the space center stage by a large LED futuristic platform, elevating and inviting participation.