The SIM Project at V&A Museum
We are thrilled to announce that Frank Menger, Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer and Sofie Boons, Senior Lecturer, collaborators on The SIM Project, have been asked to exhibit at V&A Museum as part of the London Design Festival.
The SIM Project uses the SIM card as a platform to shape new ways of sharing and archiving stories of migration. A SIM card is many things. An international ID card held within our smartphones, a repository of personal data, and a tool for intimate connection. They have a symbolic meaning too. They provide a bridge to transnational, as well as local networks to give us a portable sense of belonging.
The project is inspired by conversation and craft with refugees and people who are seeking sanctuary. The growing mobile collection includes over 150 unique artefacts created at free workshops in 8 countries. Participants make a screenshot from the image archive on their phone, which is transferred onto a sim-scale glass model. In turn, metal frames are etched, polished and stamped with ID numbers of personal significance.
The wearable SIM artworks tell stories and ask questions about notions of home, identity and how people relate to each other through digital devices.
‘As an immigrant, I don’t really have roots, I have tendrils, which stretch to different places in the world where there are people I love’ Argentinian project artist, Cyprus, 2022
‘The sim card is like the petrol in the car, the phone is the car. I would feel imprisoned without it…. It provides a way for my children to remember the faces, the places, the language of Syria, and for our family to build a secure future life here.’ Participant, Coventry 2018
The project will also be shown at the Portland B-side Festival in September.
screen shoot cover cc Memories in Motion – Display at V&A South Kensington · V&A (vam.ac.uk)
