Daily Life with Telemegaphone Dale
2008-10-17
For five weeks this summer people from all over the world could call up Telemegaphone Dale and project the sound of their voice across the small village of Dale in the beautiful Dalsfjord Valley in western Norway. A few weeks after turning off the installation we went back to Dale to meet with the local villagers and authorities to learn what life with Telemegaphone Dale has been like, and discuss if and how the project could continue.
After Erik and I left Dale, early the morning after the opening ceremony, we’ve had a massive response from the rest of the world, but we have learnt very little about how life with the Telemegaphone has been like in Dale. What have they thought about the experience? What have they heard? How have they themselves used it?
Hanging out in Dale
The Dale Bakery is a major hub for social life in Dale. People go there to meet friends and family, catch up on the latest gossip, and (of course) enjoy some tasty pastries. We spent most of Saturday there, drinking coffee, eating cinnamon rolls and talking to people about their experiences with the Telemegaphone.
People in Dale are very open and forthcoming and soon we had learnt what parts of the Telemegaphone test-run that had been great and what parts that had sucked. We list a few of these reactions below.
Not before long we had also received and accepted invitations to
- tag along to a story telling event in neighbouring Flekke
- have a beer at the local bar and
- come see Bergen band Babe Rawlins in concert.
Naturally we couldn’t resist any of this.
The morning after we led a hike up to the Telemegaphone on unsteady, and a bit hung-overy, flatland legs. A handful of locals and some of the resident artists at Nordic Artist’s Centre joined the expedition providing us with ample opportunity to probe their minds as to what they thought of the project.
Monday afternoon we met with the municipality to present the project, share the findings from our research, and discuss possible future scenarios. We were happy to learn that Fjaler municipality, to which Dale belongs, is very positive to the project. The Telemegaphone idea fits nicely with Fjaler’s vision of itself as the small place in the centre of the world and an open and welcoming community. Together we have begun looking into how to take the project further.
Reactions
A lot of people enjoyed the Telemegaphone greatly and had many funny and touching stories to tell.
Here are few quotes from Dale (in orange) and the rest of the world (in blue):
What do you think?
What are your thoughts and experiences of Telemegaphone Dale? Tell your story in a comment to this post or in other social media.