The Telephone

In this one-act opera, written in 1946, Menotti chose the telephone as an example of interference of personal communication. The presence of the device makes it very difficult for Ben to communicate his wishes to Lucy before he has to leave, so he decides to approach her in a different way.

What would Menotti or the characters of The Telephone think about the many disruptions or distractions that the digital world has brought us? On the one hand, technology makes long-distance communication very easy and diverse, providing us with different methods and languages (video calls, text and audio messages, photos, emojis, etc.); on the other hand, it interferes with communication when we are talking to someone in person, when we are not aware of our surroundings or cannot remember what the other person has said. 

 

The transcendent nature of the main theme of this opera makes it a timeless theme that can be related to everyday situations, and how we fall into a dissociative state when we look at screens.

 

In the late 1940s, when this opera was composed, the telephone was not only a tool of communication but also an aesthetic element in every home, associated above all with the female figure, in this case the "housewife".

 

The telephone came in different shapes, sizes and colours, and advertisements described it as "the best companion at home", focusing on women and designing telephones for every room, especially the bedroom and kitchen.

Nowadays, the telephone is no longer gender-specific, thereby the advantages and disadvantages now affect every user.

 

 

Dissociative state when using social media 

“One of the things I like about this framing of ‘dissociation’ rather than ‘addiction’ is that it changes the narrative. Instead of: ‘I should be able to have more self-control,’ it’s more like: ‘We all naturally dissociate in many ways throughout our day – whether it’s daydreaming or scrolling through Instagram, we stop paying attention to what’s happening around us.'”

Paul G. Allen “How Design Influences Dissociation on Social Media”

 

In this concept, I try to portray Lucy in a dissociative state rather than a dependency on a device, as a user who is highly susceptible to distractions caused by a digital environment, making it difficult to communicate with Ben through external causes, or in a dissociative state, a total cognitive absorption characterised by a diminished self-awareness.

 

Ben uses devices and social networks, as we all do, but unlike Lucy, he has control over the focus of his attention, blocks out external distractions and is essentially driven by his goal: To propose to Lucy.

 

Normative dissociation is a phenomenon we experience every day. It includes many mental states, such as daydreaming, absorption in a movie or social media, all of which have one thing in common: the blocking out of other elements of a person's consciousness, such as feelings, thoughts, memories, sensations and the environment.