The Phonebook

Five years after my father death I found a tiny accordion phonebook in his wallet. I immersed my self in the names and constellation of phone numbers diligently written in Farsi. I placed my self in challenging emotional and psychological situation and proceeded to call each person listed in it. The attempt to anonymously figure out the man behind unidentified numbers failed. Through series of phone calls I realized some contacts were missing one number, many of them were unwilling to talk and refused to keep the conversation, some people didn’t have much to say about him and someone didn’t know who he is . The process of looking for someone who is dead raised the question of privacy, identity and how we interpret existing information. To resolve the turmoil, I translate each contact number to computerized musical notes to create an imaginary sound which ultimately implicates the banality of the process. The object remains undefined; the more I close in on my subject, the less I learn about him.