Barbed Wire Fence Telephone
Arc Gallery, Chicago IL, 2014
Curated by Jan Tichy
University of Colorado Boulder, in conjunction with the Media Archeology Lab, 2024
Invited by Lori Emerson, PhD
Several thrift store-sourced telephones hang from a barbed wire fence, each separated by some distance. Wires with alligator clips connect each telephone to the fence line. Viewers who pick up the telephone receivers can use them to communicate with each other.
This work was a collaboration between Philip Peters and David Rueter. Around the turn of the century, as the Bell telephone system connected cities across the US, rural areas were mostly left out. Intrepid ranchers discovered that ad-hoc, decentralized telephone networks could be built out of simple materials at hand, using as transmission lines the vast network of barbed wire fences that covered most of the West.
Artist Talk at UC Boulder
Phil Peters and David Rueter with Lori Emerson: https://vimeo.com/1006689081?share=copy&fl=cl&fe=ci
Barbed Wire Fence Telephone II: Construction Time-lapse