All works

LINJEN

You never know who answers.

Location

Österlen

The booth

Concrete, 200 kg

The handset

Yellow, explosion-rated

One call, on screen, in Swedish. No sound. That part is in the field.

Connecting

  1. Det är sällan nån lyfter. It’s rare that anyone lifts.
  2. Härifrån ser jag en väg och sen ingenting. From here I see a road, and then nothing.
  3. Stolparna går åt två håll. Åt ena hållet är det havet, fast man ser det inte. The poles run two ways. One way is the sea, though you can’t see it.
  4. Det stod en kiosk som den här i varje by en gång. Nu är det den här. There was a booth like this in every village once. Now there’s this one.
  5. Jag vet inte vilket år det är hos dig. Det spelar mindre roll än man tror. I don’t know what year it is where you are. It matters less than you’d think.
  6. Strömmen räcker inte längre. Ring igen när det är mörkt. The power won’t hold any longer. Call again when it’s dark.

The line ran out.

That was one of them. Go and find out who else is on the line.

What it is

Phone boxes are obsolete artefacts in this technocratic Sweden.

It started with me and Johan going to build something together. An AI product or something. It ended with us buying a phone box. We wanted to put it out in the field. Just that view got the brain going.

I joined Facebook groups about Televerket and got hooked straight away. I have childhood memories of landlines, when there were still boxes about. I turned into a proper nerd. Different eras, Riksarkivet, Tekniska museet, a lot of Blocket.

Getting it home

There was a box two hours from the field. We drove up and were met by a 200-kilo lump of concrete. It took a whole day to get it onto the trailer, it was standing awkwardly. An achievement in itself.

It had no windows. We really wanted a box you could shut the door on. Weatherproof, sealed. Just you and the receiver.

I bought the handset from Alibaba. An industrial phone, rated for explosions, vandalism and cold.

Lifting the receiver

You walk through the field. It is as if it has been drawn through the wheat, so there is a path when the wheat is up. It stands there and glows in the dark.

You open the door, strong and solid, and step in. Probably hot as hell if the sun has been on it. Or very cold. Rain rattling on the panes.

There is a yellow phone. A mine telephone, robust. You feel it when you lift it.

Tone. It connects. Crackle. Then someone says: Hallå? Är det någon där?

You never know who answers.

Behind it

What broke

A lot. Mostly what it should run on, and which cables and wires were needed. I reprogrammed it with the supplier's firmware. A lot of debugging, new problems all the time. Latency, script, voice research.

Credits

Photos

Pass it on

It has to be experienced on site.

Pass it on

Send it to someone who would make the trip.

Or reach me

Questions, or a place to put it.