|
AlteredAgain
Visual Alchemist



Registered: 04/27/06
Posts: 11,181
Loc: Solar Circuit
|
Telephone at random
#7944752 - 01/28/08 10:56 AM (16 years, 4 days ago) |
|
|

Lift the handset. Start dialing a number, any number, blindly. Press the numbers at random. Wait and see what happens. To begin with, the experiment is mostly disappointing. Engaged signals, recorded error messages, blanks. Dead ends. Unless you're very lucky, your first attempts lead nowhere. The telephone does not work at random. So you must arrange matters to increase your chances of success.
Begin by determining the total number of figures you will dial, which varies depending on the country you're in, the requisite codes, the region you are thinking of contacting. You can either limit yourself to national calls or extend your luck to the four corners of the world (depending on your mood, your languages, and your budget).
Clearly none of this should be treated as a prank. The game we are playing has nothing in common with the kind of practical joke played by adolescents the world over. And this, indeed, is the first thing you need to impress upon your interlocutors. "I'm phoning you at random. Can you tell me who you are?" You must get them to agree, if you can, that it's no joke.
What happens next is unpredictable. They'll slam the phone down on you, or you'll begin an unlikely conversation with the receptionist at a steel girder factory in Manchester. They'll insult you, or else a strange, semi-anonymous relationship will be initiated with someone who was a perfect stranger a moment before.
The experiment is not about making new friends or chatting people up from the comfort of your own home. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not the point. Rather it's a way of experiencing the density of the human world, both close at hand and far away. Telephoning at random ought to be the starting point of micro-adventures into this density. Of infinitesimal odysseys. Instantaneous disorientations, sudden abyssal faults in the daily routine, little pockets of strangeness. To return to earth, just hang up. But it takes a moment to adjust. Strands of otherness still hang in the air. Or you've left some thread of your own behind, and you don't quite know where.
--------------------
|
fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger



Registered: 03/12/02
Posts: 24,855
Loc: Pandurn
Last seen: 1 year, 12 days
|
|
Interesting post.
--------------------
If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
|
EternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance



Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 7,152
Loc: Time and Space
|
|
I enjoy the way you think
--------------------
|
AlteredAgain
Visual Alchemist



Registered: 04/27/06
Posts: 11,181
Loc: Solar Circuit
|
|
The idea is not my own. But it's certainly something I want on my to-do list.
--------------------
|
fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger



Registered: 03/12/02
Posts: 24,855
Loc: Pandurn
Last seen: 1 year, 12 days
|
|
I've got enough people in my own life that I don't really feel like talking to most of the time.
--------------------
If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
|
OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
|
|
I like to tell the callee that I am watching them from across the street... Stalking can sure be fun!
--------------------
|
Kamek


Registered: 01/08/05
Posts: 2,923
Last seen: 8 months, 6 days
|
|
i'd give it a try but my skype isnt working atm...
|
|