Love Letters project: Difference between revisions

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The Love Letters Hotline & Audio Tour is a project initiated by the Office of Queer Affairs (OoQA) in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven that explores the extent by which a collective, local, queer voice can both literally and figuratively intervene on the museum's collection presentation ''(2021 - 2026).''

The project consists of a community-built, semi-conversational, always-in-the-making interactive audio tour that is co-built by members of the Office of Queer Affairs (OoQA) and Eindhoven's local queer community.

[https://app.smartify.org/tours/love-letters-tour Listen to the Love Letters Tour on Smartify], [https://vanabbemuseum.nl/en/see-and-do/exhibitions-activities/delinking-and-relinking visit the Delinking and Relinking Exhibition at Van Abbemuseum], or [tel:+310202050105 call the Love Letters Hotline 02 02 05 01 05].

[[File:Smartify-got-a-light.png|alt=Screenshot of the "Got a Light?" personal ad in the Smartify interface. |center|thumb|Screenshot of the "Got a Light?" personal ad in the Smartify interface.]]

[[File:Smartify-queer-desire.png|alt=Screenshot of the "A Wild Ride" personal ad in the Smartify interface. |center|thumb|Screenshot of the "A Wild Ride" personal ad in the Smartify interface. ]]

We departed from a selection of 12 artworks and annotated them with personal ads inspired by the 90's "On Our Backs"-style lesbian personals. These ads are written from the "POV of the artwork" and can be found dispersed in the exhibition space and in the audio tour.

[[File:Tokens-rodina.jpg|alt=The design for the tokens that were to be printed and distributed around the space of the exhibition, containing the personal ads and a prompt to call the hotline and leave a love letter.|center|thumb|The design for the tokens that were to be printed and distributed around the space of the exhibition, containing the personal ads and a prompt to call the hotline and leave a love letter.]]

File:This-means-pussy.jpg

File:Token-scan.jpg|

File:Token-white-man.jpg

</gallery>

Each personal ad prompts the reader/listener with a question related to their interpersonal experiences of queerness in relation to the artwork. They are invited to respond by calling a phone number and leaving a message. This "Love Letter" is automatically added to a queue, and twice a year, we inspect the queue of Love Letters, select a few and manually publish them to the tour.

[[File:3cx-cfd-love-letters.png|alt=The diagram of the hotline phone menu within the software interface used to design it.|thumb|The diagram of the hotline phone menu within the software interface used to design it.]]

Year after year, the audio tour cumulatively grows and transforms into a conversational piece.

The tour has been translated to Dutch and NGT (Dutch Sign Language), is hosted by Smartify and is accessible on their website and in their app.

[[File:Smartify-ngt-2.png|alt=A frame from the Dutch Sign Language interpretation of one of the personal ads.|thumb|A frame from the Dutch Sign Language interpretation of one of the personal ads.]]

== ''Love Letters Tour'' ==