Telephone Trottoire

Pilot March 27th to May 8th, 2006

The aim of the “Telephone Trottoire” project was to engage the London based Congolese community in issues that affect our day-to-day lives. “Telephone Trottoire” is based on a new form of “contagious” telephone application developed by Mongrel and named after the Congolese practice of “pavement radio” or the passing around of news and gossip between individuals on street corners.

In Central Africa people defy media censorship by sharing news and gossip using 'radio trottoire' or 'pavement radio'. Built in collaboration with the radio programmes “Nostalgie Ya Mboka” and “Londres Na Biso” (www.nostalgieyamboka.net), "Telephone Trottoire" encourages London's Congolese community to pass around news stories and discuss them using a unique system of sharing content over the phone.

The project engages the Congolese community on their own terms by using systems that draw from their own culture, beliefs and folklore – some stories are intended to provoke, some to entertain and some to educate. All allow listeners to record their own comments and pass the call on to a friend or family member by entering their phone number. Some are true and some are false – after all isn’t this all about gossip – the “Telephone Trottoire”?

This project was part of the NODE.London season of media arts taking place throughout March 2006 (http://www.nodel.org)

Read the report on the project here or online here.

This is the introductory message users hear when they answer the call:
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Listen to the topic about played about the power of Congolese priests in London and the responses we got here.