Time Travel: NYC Style

The New Museum in NYC is hosting a new exhibit titled: NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star which runs until May 26, 2013. One aspect of the exhibit includes the 5000 remaining pay phones in NYC. By dialing 1-855-FOR-1993 on one of these pay phones a "notable" resident will recount what life on that specific block was like in 1993.

Photo via The Washington Post. Credit: Mary Altaffer.
A pedestrian walks past a pay phone advertising the new exhibit: NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.

A variety of artists, writers, food, and fashion stars answer the phone and in a pre-recorded monologue discuss the life of NYC 20 years earlier.

1993 was a turning point in the history of NYC. According to an article on The Washington Post which dissected the exhibit, "...New York that was dirtier, bloodier, raunchier and less gentrified than today — but also an easier place for a talented young person to gain a foothold.

(Mario) Batali says in his sound bite that opening a restaurant was easier in 1993 when he debuted his first restaurant, Po. “You didn’t have to have a rich daddy or an investor or put together a team or anything like that,” he says.

Sounds like a great show! And I especially love the use of the now almost completely defunct pay phones still dotting the US. 

- Grace