<aside> 📖 Prototype and document a Phone Add-On device/object.
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After having some discussions with Sam over which direction to go, we decided to take a personal and performative approach to the assignment. Our add-on would be a phone attachment that looks like a pay phone. When connected to either Sam’s or my phone, the coin acceptor on the add-on will unlock the phone when a quarter is inserted, allowing anyone to use one of our phones for a set amount of time before it locks again. The quarters, in the real world, would go to the owner of the phone, payment for the
There’s something here about commodifying our privacy and data, taking back ownership of the capital made off our data or at least rethinking our consent to our privacy being sold on our behalf.
We thought about using metal, since most pay phones are made to be durable and weather proof, but we thought that wood would be much easier to work with. Sam and I discussed the layout of the box and once we had the important components in hand we were able to make quick measurements. We also had to design a case for the phone to prevent thievery (someone unplugging our phones) so we came up with a sandwich design that locks in the Lightning connector.
Sam really pulled the hard yards on this one, feel free to check her blog for her process, but simply put cut out the wood, glued it all together, rounded the edges, primed, painted, and finished off the box and phone case. Sam made sure that the coin collection box made a very satisfying sound as a coin fell into it.
Lastly we just needed to add some decals to pull off the payphone look.
For the show we decided to spruce up the phone casing and the cable, making it look more like a pay phone. The shower hose was from Amazon and we 3D printed the case for the phone.