Work
The Telephone Call
Maker Janet Cardiff · Work date 2001 · Medium headphones · Role control · Experienced by the compiler 2026-07-27
Description
SFMOMA: "Embark on an unusual journey through SFMOMA by participating in one of the museum's most innovative commissions." Using "a collage of video images, music, ambient sounds, and her own voice," Cardiff "narrates an alternate reality of our surroundings," exploring "how our minds invent scenarios from chance meetings between people." The route passes through "galleries, public spaces, as well as areas normally off limits to visitors." Visitors "check out a smartphone and headphones at the designated kiosk." Collection medium line: "audio and video walk through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: digital video, smartphone, and headphones." Roughly 15 minutes.
Source. https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/janet-cardiff-the-telephone-call/
On the medium. Smartphone and headphones, checked out at SFMOMA; an audio-video walk.
DESPITE THE TITLE, NOT A PHONE WORK. Headphone-and-screen video walk. Work dated 2001 (SFMOMA records 2001/2023), not 2026.
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 headphonesyesP
Visitors "check out a smartphone and headphones at the designated kiosk"; the collection medium line names headphones.
- Participants move through space as part of the workyesP
It is a walk whose route "passes through galleries, public spaces, as well as areas normally off limits," so standing still would miss the work.
- Audio technology is necessaryyesP
An "audio and video walk" built from Cardiff's voice, music and ambient sound.
- Site-, situation- or language-specificSiteP
The route is through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art specifically and cannot be staged elsewhere.
- Engages with the history of a sitenoI
Cardiff "narrates an alternate reality of our surroundings" and invented scenarios, not documented past events of the museum.
- Created for an urban environmentnoI
The work presupposes a museum building and its off-limits areas, not crowds, transit or street density.
- Created as an artwork other than theateryesP
An SFMOMA commission in the museum's collection, presented as an exhibition — a visual-art and installation framing.
- Intended to be understood as theaterunknown?
The SFMOMA text uses commission, exhibition and visitor vocabulary and no theatrical vocabulary, which does not settle the question either way.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantyesI
The piece narrates "an alternate reality of our surroundings" and dwells on "chance meetings between people," directing attention outward to whatever is actually in the galleries.
- Spectator must participateyesI
The participant must carry the device and walk the route in step with the audio and video for the work to proceed.
- Has live performers other than the participantsnoI
A recorded audio-video walk checked out at a kiosk; no live performer.
- Involves game playnoI
No rules, objective or resolution state.
- Uses props other than the listening devicenoI
The only objects handled are the delivery devices themselves — the checked-out smartphone and headphones.
1 of thirteen are still unknown for this work. If you experienced it, you can settle them in a minute.