Work
Hold, Please
Maker Kate Douglas · Work date 2021-09-26 · Medium telephone · Role work
Description
Hold, Please explores the nature of intimacy in the uncanny valley. This experience takes place on an automated phone system platform. Multiple experiences are possible, guided by an automated voice… who keeps forgetting their lines. As we enter a full year of pause, Hold, Please asks: what can we learn inside of waiting? Where can we find connection if we can’t find it with the robots we speak to on a regular basis?
Source. No published description found.
Anatomy
Thirteen criteria after Lauren R. Beck. Each carries a source grade: M maker-confirmed, P published, F first-hand, I inferred by the compiler, ? not yet established. Definitions are on the anatomy page.
- Participants listen through headphonesnoI
Delivered on an automated phone system with no headphone requirement stated.
- Participants move through space as part of the worknoI
A phone-system call with no instruction to change location.
- Audio technology is necessaryyesP
Listing states the experience takes place on an automated phone system platform.
- Site-, situation- or language-specificnoI
No required site, circumstance, or language is named; the 'year of pause' is context, not a requirement.
- Engages with the history of a sitenoI
Content concerns waiting and machine voices, not documented events of a real place.
- Created for an urban environmentnoI
A phone line presupposes a telephone, not a city.
- Created as an artwork other than theaterunknown?
The conceptual framing around the uncanny valley could be sound art, but no discipline is named and 'forgetting their lines' points theatrical.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Intended to be understood as theateryesI
The listing's only framing vocabulary is theatrical: an automated voice 'who keeps forgetting their lines'.
- Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantunknown?
Nothing is said about the participant's surroundings.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Spectator must participateyesI
'Multiple experiences are possible' on a phone-system platform implies the participant must make selections to reach them.
- Has live performers other than the participantsnoP
Listing states it runs on an automated phone system 'guided by an automated voice'.
- Involves game playnoI
Branching experiences with no objective, scoring, or resolution state.
- Uses props other than the listening deviceunknown?
No physical materials are mentioned either way.
Did you experience this? Tell us
3 of thirteen are still unknown for this work. If you experienced it, you can settle them in a minute.