DARK TALK TIME
2020-21
Public participatory work.
Created with Ben Landau and Jalen Lyle-Holmes.
Supported by the City of Melbourne, City of Darebin, City of Monash, City of Whittlesea.
Project website and bookings here.
Illustrations by Mike Greaney.
Dark Talk Time connects pairs of strangers for hosted phone conversations.
When did you last have an in-depth conversation with a stranger?
When did you last hear how your life sounds, reflected back from someone outside your everyday? Someone who you haven’t met before and won’t meet again?
With Dark Talk Time, we create the space for these conversations to happen.
Dark Talk Time has hosted hundreds of phone conversations for Australians in lockdown. Through carefully hosting and a bespoke phone system, the project opens up time scales and creates space for wide-ranging discussions.
“I just have this extreme enthusiasm and optimism for people now. Just to know that I just spoke to a stranger for almost two hours on the phone and we hadn't known anything about each other. That is kind of something that's even possible! I could have this kind of relationship with people I pass on the street.” — DTT participant.
Featured in The Age, and reviewed by Izzy Roberts-Orr.