by Dmyrti Kleiner, Baruch Gottlieb, Jonas Frankki, Mike Pearce, Jeff Mann, and the Telekommunisten Network

Telekommunisten present R15N as a working telephone-based interactive installation which is available as a mobilization and engagement platform for the transmediale community. R15N is an artwork in the form of an experimental mobile phone service which attempts to generate local community engagement and communication. Unlike typical social networks, where communication is self-selected into circles of “friends,” R15N works through the co-operation of randomly selected people to enable a community to share information by having the system call people and connect them to each other on the phone. After registering with the service on www.r15n.net participants will be joined together in the R15N community, able to initiate and share information. Every member thus eventually becomes engaged in a real conversation with another, and this engenders cohesion and complicity. R15N was originally produced in collaboration with the Israeli Center of Digital Art and successfully implemented in the Jessy Cohen Neighborhood (Holon, il).

(Image: R15N, a project by Telekommunisten. Graphic by Jonas Frankki)