This is the Urban Speaker: a smartphone attached to a loud speaker attached to a traffic sign. Tomorrow, when it goes live in NYC, you'll be able to call it up and announce whatever's on your mind. I smell mischief!
Is your refrigerator running?
Yes...
Then you better go catch it!
That's funny when you do it to one person. It's HILARIOUS when you do it to an entire neighborhood. Just imagine all those refrigerators literally running away. OK, ok, maybe I need to spend a little more time fine tuning my telephonic prankery, but I can't see how the Urban Speaker, an installation that goes live tomorrow afternoon on the south end of Tompkins Square Park, won't result in some excellent hijinks.
The speaker's part of the Conflux Festival, a weekend-long program of participatory art and technology projects in the East Village. The Urban Speaker's number is 979-997-3041—hopefully Mike Rotch will be there to answer your call. [Wooster Collective]