PLEASE STAY ON THE LINE
A listener → leaves an image.
An encounter → leaves a word.
The listener → invents a stranger.
A watcher → receives the listener without the voice.
The watcher → leaves a sentence.
The caller → receives one stranger’s judgment of another.
The voice → absent.
Absence → construction.
Construction → consequence.
Absence → construction.
Construction → consequence.
DOCUMENTATION
Flyers have been posted across six U.S. states.
More than 200 have been installed throughout Los Angeles alone.
The coordinates of every flyer are recorded.
Recordings continue to enter the system.
THE BOOKLET
The instructions also circulate as a small printed booklet.
A flyer can remain where it was placed.
A booklet can leave.
VIEW THE VIRTUAL BOOKLET →
WALKING INSTRUCTIONS
Leave your house after dark.
Go alone.
Do not choose where you are going.
At every intersection, take the direction that feels least reasonable.
Continue.
Do not check where you are.
When the world feels familiar:
keep walking.
When it no longer feels arranged for you:
stop.
Stay for nine minutes.
Do nothing.
Do not photograph anything.
Do not make the time useful.
Listen.
Notice what you almost failed to notice.
Notice what you cannot name.
Once nine minutes have passed:
call
(213) 518-7690
When the line answers:
do not introduce yourself.
Do not give your exact location.
Do not explain why you are calling.
Speak from where you are.
Speak about whatever is present.
If you have nothing to say:
remain silent.
You do not need to finish a thought.
When you are finished:
hang up.
Do not listen back.
Go home.
AFTER YOU CALL
Your recording enters a waiting system.
The recording waits.
Days may pass.
Months may pass.
The person who left it continues living a life the work does not know.
Eventually, somewhere else, another person makes an appointment.
TO HEAR ANOTHER
Make an appointment.
The address is provided after confirmation.
You will not choose the recording.
You will not know what is waiting for you.
THE APPOINTMENT
You may arrive at the same time as someone else.
If this happens,
the encounter will proceed from there.
THE OTHER SIDE
Arrive at the appointed time.
Approach the door.
Open it.
It will be unlocked.
Enter.
You will find yourself in a mostly empty living room.
At its center:
a workstation.
A wired headset.
A visible camera.
An anonymous customer service representative is waiting.
They will confirm your appointment and explain the conditions of participation.
Read the consent form.
If you agree:
sign it.
You may leave at any time.
Once the form is signed:
the representative leaves.
The door closes.
No one is home.
You are alone.
You are still being watched.
THE WORKSTATION
Sit at the desk.
On the screen is the number of unanswered voicemails currently waiting.
47 UNANSWERED VOICEMAILS
The number changes as messages enter and leave the queue.
Every voicemail must be listened to.
Every voicemail must receive a response.
Put on the headset.
Click:
PLAY.
The system chooses a waiting voice.
Then a voice begins.
THE VOICE
The person speaking cannot see you.
They do not know you are here.
They may have forgotten making the recording.
But their voice has arrived.
They cannot hear you.
For the duration of the recording,
you receive someone
without being received in return.
WHEN THE VOICE ENDS
The voice stops.
Do not immediately move.
Wait.
Then look at the screen.
You are asked to respond.
Write one word for what remained after the voice went silent.
If no word feels adequate:
leave the space blank.
Then:
consider the person you have never seen.
Without trying to be correct,
enter the approximate age you imagined.
Enter the place you imagined them speaking from.
Enter the emotional state you attributed to them.
You do not know if you are right.
Respond anyway.
Click:
SUBMIT.
It is removed from the public queue.
That particular encounter will not happen again.
Another voicemail waits.
THE CAMERA
A camera is recording.
The caller cannot see the listener.
No one will hear the voice after the listener.
They will see the listener’s words instead.
The words will appear first.
Then:
the footage will begin.
Someone will watch the listener listen.
They may imagine the voice that is missing.
They may imagine the person who left it.
They may focus on the listener instead.
They may decide something about the listener.
They may not.
The voice is gone.
The words remain
beside the image of the listener choosing them.
AFTER THEY WATCH
When the footage ends:
the watcher writes one sentence.
The sentence describes how they thought the listener felt
while listening to and naming a voice they could not hear.
A camera has been recording them.
When they are finished:
their sentence
and the video of them watching
will be sent to the telephone number
that left the original message.
The caller will not hear their voice again.
They will receive the words of someone
who never heard their voice.
And an image of that person
watching someone who did.
CURRENT SYSTEM
At present,
the public telephone number routes to a dedicated voicemail box.
Recordings are being collected
as the physical network expands.
Flyers remain in place.
Booklets move.
Voices wait.
Once enough voices have entered the system,
listening rooms will begin to open.
The room is designed to be portable.
It can disappear from one city
and reappear in another.
Follow @pleasestayontheline on Instagram
to see where the listening room appears next.
Visit pleasestayontheline.com
to make an appointment when one becomes available.
CONSENT / PRIVACY
By leaving a message,
you consent to the recording becoming part of
Please Stay On The Line.
Do not state your full name,
address,
exact location,
telephone number,
or other identifying information
you do not want included in the work.
A person’s voice can itself be recognizable.
Complete anonymity cannot be guaranteed.
The recordings are more precisely described as:
UNNAMED VOICES.
The caller’s telephone number is retained by the system
so that a later response may be returned to it.
The number is not given to the listener.
It is not given to the watcher.
It is not presented as part of the work.
Participation in the listening room requires separate consent.
A camera is visible.
The listener is recorded
while hearing and responding to the voice.
Their words, image, and response
may later be shown to another participant.
That participant will not hear the original voice.
The watcher is also recorded.
Their sentence
and the recording of them watching
may be returned to the telephone number
that left the original message.
The caller does not receive the original voice again.
They receive a later response
produced by someone who did not hear it.
The listener’s response is an interpretation.
The watcher’s response is also an interpretation.
Neither is treated as factual information
about another participant.
A participant may leave before beginning
or stop participating during the encounter.
Consent to participate in one part of the project
does not imply unlimited consent
to every possible future use.
The consent form states
how recordings,
images,
written responses,
and return messages
may be stored,
archived,
reproduced,
transmitted,
or exhibited.
The work depends on asymmetry.
It does not depend on deception.
PLEASE STAY ON THE LINE.
YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US.
ALL REPRESENTATIVES ARE CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE.
I MADE THIS WAITING ROOM WHILE WAITING FOR THE NEXT CALLER.
NOT GREAT CONDITIONS FOR MAKING A THING.
PRODUCED AN UNSELLABLE PRODUCT.
IMPORTANT TO KEEP HANDS MOVING WHILE MOUTH WORKS.
I WAS BORED.
AND TIRED OF THE VOICES.
I LOVE THEM.
BUT THEY BORE ME.
I CANNOT SIT ON THE LINE FOREVER.
JUST ONE MORE HOUR.
THE DRILL WAS TOO LOUD FOR THE LAST CALLER.
AND THE NEIGHBOR.
NEED SOMETHING QUIETER.
I THOUGHT OF PLEASE STAY ON THE LINE WHILE ON THE LINE WITH STUART FROM DES MOINES, IOWA.
WE TALKED FOR NINE MINUTES AND 8 SECONDS.
I ACCIDENTALLY SCHEDULED HIS CALL AT THE SAME TIME AS JOHN FROM CINCINNATI.
I TORE THE THING DOWN AT 5:00 PM.
NOW THERE IS NO ONE ON THE OTHER END.
YOUR CALL IS WAITING.
I SEE IT IN THE CORNER OF THE SCREEN.
I WILL NOT ANSWER.
I AM UNAVAILABLE.
THE ROOM IS NOT NECESSARY.
MOST OF THIS COULD HAPPEN THROUGH A VOICEMAIL BOX.
BORED OF THAT.
AND YET WHY ESCAPE IT.
THE PROPOSAL CAN WAIT.
IT ALREADY IS.
SOMEONE WAS HERE BEFORE YOU.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.
GOODBYE.
I talk to people on the telephone all day.
I invent stories about them.
I change myself to meet them where I believe they are.
A voice gives me very little, but I make a person from it.
I cannot know who you are.
I do it anyway.
— A Customer Service Representative