The Telephonic Trio Dial up

The Telephonic Trio, Dial up, installation image, John Hansard Gallery, 2022. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Reece Straw

The Telephonic Youth Group have produced these expressive artworks in response to research carried out on the project, ‘Children and young people’s telephone use and telephone cultures in Britain from 1984–1999’.

Young people took part in a ten-week project at John Hansard Gallery with artist Russell Squires. Their ideas were inspired by old phones, materials and memories that were collected on the research project. Using photography, collage and creative writing, they experimented with colour, light, text and symbols. Re-imagining the phone, this exhibition explores its importance and its effects on young people, both good and bad. The artworks respond to the phone as an object, image, and communication device.  The young people developed a variety of new skills and different methods of making art, as well as increasing their understanding of heritage in producing this exhibition. Visit the project website here.

The artists are collectively known as The Telephonic Trio.

About the project:
‘Children and young people’s telephone use and telephone cultures in Britain c. 1984–1999’ is a research project led by Dr Eve Colpus from the University of Southampton (Ethics and Research and Governance Online numbers 56966 and 67005), in partnership with John Hansard Gallery and BT Heritage & Archives. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, grant number AH/V008943/1), part of UK Research and Innovation.

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