Public pay phones may seem like relics of the past, but one structure still standing on Flower Avenue in Takoma Park, Maryland, has been given a new lease on life as a piece of public art. In 2016, local resident, composer, and audio producer David Schulman transformed an old pay phone into an interactive art installation that plays recordings of different bird species from the area. He reengineered the payphone for a public art contest, naming his creation Birdcalls.
When someone picks up the bright yellow receiver, they’re greeted with the sound of a mourning dove. An instructional message plays, saying, “Welcome to Birdcalls featuring the sounds of birds who make their homes here in Takoma Park. To hear a local bird press any key.” Each number corresponds with a different local bird: Press 1 for a Northern Mockingbird, 2 for Pileated Woodpeckers, and 5 for Roscoe the Rooster, who famously roamed Takoma Park for most of the 1990s. Pushing the phone’s buttons will also play facts about the different bird species.
Given that the phone’s location is close to Washington, D.C., Schulman featured the city’s official bird as number 8 on the dial: the wood thrush. Its song sounds like two voices singing in harmony, which makes sense once you learn the wood thrush actually has two voice boxes. Schulman said, “It makes this amazing, watery sound. It sounds like it’s in some reverb tank or something. It’s beautiful.”
Schulman said the project wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the Macaulay Library at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology. He revealed, “These people have this amazing archive of animal sounds, mostly bird calls.”
Find out more about Birdcalls in the video above, and try it out for yourself if you’re ever in Maryland.
David Schulman: Wesbite | Instagram
Sources: The Bird Calls Phone; He Made a Phone That Plays Birdsong in 2016. Why is It Just Now Catching Eyes?
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