The Megaphone Box

Commissioned for Freedom Festival 2015, The Megaphone Box formed part of Humber Calling: a trail of six new works built around K6 telephone boxes and the festival theme 'Broadcast: Voices of Freedom'. The programme was developed by Freedom Festival with Roots & Wings and Walk the Plank, and curated by sound artist Scanner.

The installation turned the telephone box inside out. Visitors spoke, shouted, whispered, laughed or cried into a single inward-facing megaphone. An Arduino-based system responded to the volume, intensity and tone of each voice, returning an unpredictable audio response through multiple outward-facing megaphones while dense LED strips generated synchronised geometric patterns.

Sound artist Toby Wiltshire created a radio-like sound world from voices, languages, field recordings, static and white noise. Sometimes the response echoed the visitor's input; at other times it was comic or surreal. The work used that playful exchange to explore how the human voice can connect people across cultural difference. Designer Barney George completed the three-person creative team.