The Oracle of Chemnitz: An interactive art installation to reanimate old things in a garage featuring a rotary phone
Abstract
Garages have a long tradition of tinkering, creativity and innovative change. School of Garage, a participatory artistic summer school project in Chemnitz, the European Capital of Culture 2025, took up this tradition and turned old Eastern Bloc garages into temporary ateliers for collaborative making and discussion. In our HackLab garage we conceptualized and created the Oracle of Chemnitz within one week. It gives a place filled with history back its stories. It is an interactive installation of artifacts from the past typically found in garages: an old typewriter, radio, desk, tires, mixer and a rotary-dial telephone. Each got a name, personality and story to tell. The phone rings when a visitor approaches. Once answered, it asks for name and month of birth before a story about a device is told, along with hints to other places in the city. Around 2,700 visitors interacted with the system over three months.
