Sunday Arts Magazine

Sunday Arts Magazine


Ben Landau – Dark Talk Time

October 10, 2021

Sitting in the dark on the phone, you share a conversation with a stranger. You open a brief window into each other’s lives, and then say goodbye, a little lighter than before. Dark Talk Time is an art project that connects pairs of strangers via the phone for conversations full of depth, wonder and surprise. With half the country in lockdown, it’s the perfect opportunity for people to experience a little island of connection, in the current sea of social distance.Book a time, call the number, and be welcomed by a host, who pairs two people at a time, and offers prompts to assist the conversation. Last season, one person said “I was feeling a little bit anxious initially…And then here I am, two hours and 20 minutes later, after having a wonderful meandering, intellectual and philosophical conversation that went many places.” For another, “Something in our conversation both enabled me to feel more of a sense of possibility for the future and also enabled my partner to feel more of a sense of possibility for her now.”