Monday, March 03, 2014

Communications

Communicate, acrylic, graphite/ paper.
We studied the technological dichotomy in the smallish Hamlet of Wordsworth, where, flummoxed by a plethora of communication options, residents selected a single carrier for their internet, television, teleporting, and teleprompting services. However, bound by contract to an offshoot of Bell Telephone, they are forced to continue with operator assisted telephone interminably. (For those of you unfamiliar with this service, when a caller lifts the receiver, an operator asks for a number and connects the caller to the callee through a maze of wires and plugs on a switch board.) Wordsworth forwent dial up service in 1959 when interim Mayor, John  'Johnny No Fingers' Bend*, encouraged residents to stay with operator assisted calling.

* Circa 1956, John Bend, then a renowned burglar, tried to erase his fingerprints with an acid bath.