An overarching theme to section 2's walls was the exposure, expansion, or critique of some social interaction in an effort to explore the wall as a social device. Not knowing what to study or where to explore, I brought my camera with me when I went out one night. A recurring challenge I observed was getting pictures of people interacting without them being distracted by their cellphones... More on that later.

After reviewing the photos, one in particular stood out. I intended to take a picture of my friend, but the camera's autofocus instead captured a couple in the background engaged in what was a fairly intimate (but innapropriately boisterous) conversation. After rumination I realized that the couple's disregard for personal privacy was in many ways reflective of the cell phone dilemna I faced earlier.

While initially the telephone was meant to be a private auditory experience, the conversational privacy has been reversed over time; people today are not worried about putting their conversations into public space, whereas looking at or watching someones phone is now a much more intimate invasion of privacy. In a way, the classic phonebooth has been made obsolette by the cell phone, not just in terms of technological innovation, but the social advancement that came along with it. Phone booths are intended to block sound, but not vision (as evidenced by their open/glass construction), essentially the opposite of what would be valued in a phonebooth today. From this discovery, my project was given direction: I set out to make a wall that acted as a twenty-first-century phone booth, providing visual privacy, but not necessarily audible privacy.