1 800 585 1078 (FEAR)
We love Deborah Stratman. 1) She’s from Chicago. 2) She experiments with film and other forms of media/technology. The following is a brilliant concept:
Straight from Pythagoras Film:
In fall of 2003, business cards were freely dispensed at 30 pay phone booths around the city of Chicago. The cards invited participants to dial a toll-free number and describe what they were most afraid of. The toll-free number was operational for two months and resulted in over 200 responses, which were then compiled onto an audio CD and broadcast on WLUW (88.7fm).
The toll free FEAR number has since been reinstated and remains open for submission. Call now! 1 800 585 1078
The relationship between safety and fear is a cyclical one. Desire for safety leads us to build gated communities, post surveillance cameras and enlist security patrols to protect ourselves from breach by an unknown. In the process, we sever ourselves from the unexpected, from the accidental, from others not like us. The less we encounter them, the less we know and understand them. The less we know and understand them, the more we fear them. The more we fear them, the more we fortify ourselves. It is a fundamentally unhealthy relationship, as our fears so often animate our decisions.
As our administration employs increasingly reactionary policies, where a fearful, suggestible citizenry is desirable, it becomes more important to question what that fear is.
The calls are really interesting. The callers are candid; some are truthful and disclose their fear of bats, spiders, people lurking in the dark seeking to cut others, defaulting on loans, the abyss (like the ocean or outer-space), relationships, or swarms of insects and other species. Others joke around with it. Some talk about sports. Many say they’re afraid of failure.
Click here to listen to the phone calls.
And remember: The toll-free number has been reactivated
Call 1 800 585 1078 tonight.