Creating post-corona public confessionals dedicated to unplanned social interactions.
The Corona era took away the possibilities that the temporary social interaction can give. The public was asked to stay away from public spaces, to stay seperate. Individuals, each in their own homes. This was a trying time not only because of the mental and physical implications of a global pandemic, but for the disprution in the natural flow of human interaction as we knew it. This put a spotlight on the missing - what happens when we don't meet people out of our inner circles? What happens when the public becomes seperate?
The idea behind the public confessionals is a simple one - there will always be a person interested in telling a story, and there will always be a person interested in hearing one. It is inspired by the grief telephone idea of the small town Otsuchi in northern Japan, where 2000 residants lost their lives to the Tsunami of 2011. After the disaster, a telephone booth with a disconnected line was placed in town, where grieving families could call their lost loved ones. Sometimes, all a community needs is a space to be opened for their use.
These city confessionals can be created in many ways. For example, they can be formed as an anonymous physical booth in which one side is marked as the listener and one as the talker and each side knows when someone has sat down across them, or as a line of hedges in a park that is known as the confessional bench and the voice passes through the planted path.I believe in the importance of opening a chance for people to meet in a way that could surprise them. To interact, especially now after our long isolation period. To talk. To listen. Sometimes, only a space needs to be opened. The city and its inhabitants can take it from there.
