Closed Circuits

Abstract

Landline, Lifeline is a sculpture by Kamari Carter in which four telephones play cauterised halves of 911 emergency call conversations. The listener hears the callers and despatchers separately, together or in new configurations, implicating themselves in the process.

Carter is an artist living in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. He speaks here to his colleague Julian Day about the piece and the ideas that drive his practice: critical eavesdropping, hidden systems and racialised discrepancies of power.

Included here is a video of the original installation alongside an interactive web version of the work and the conversation between Carter and Day as both edited text and audio.