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### Amelia Marzec

Amelia Marzec has been a resident at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, a Fellow at the Tow Center at Columbia University, a Fellow at A.I.R. Gallery, and a CUNY-PSC Grantee. She was nominated for the World Technology Awards for Art, and has shown work at MIT and SIGGRAPH.

## Presenting

### Signal Strength and the Community Phone Booth

What happens when you need to share a vital message with a chosen few? The Signal Strength Project is an alternative network for cell phones to allow people to connect for a variety of reasons: loss of service due to political unrest or disaster relief, or the need to ensure privacy by communicating directly with peers instead of linking up to a centralized network. The project allows citizens to take mobile democracy into their own hands. It consists of hardware that hacks their existing mobile phone in order to circumvent cell phone providers and enable offline, peer to peer communication with other members of their urban community. It instantly connects users who are nearby, who are then able to message each other.

The project explores the role of technology in shaping resistance. It bypasses our current infrastructure to create a new, private network for a close-knit community. It enables citizens by acknowledging our very human need for connection right here at home.

The project can work alongside or independently of other services. The phone booths allow the system to exist in public space, for users who may not have access to the technology otherwise.