We’re introducing Night Mode … Try it out with the sun/moon icon at the top left. Or change font settings with the ‘A’ to make the site work for you.
Got it
ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
0 / 256
Phone Home – Venus Ex Machina
Institute of Contemporary Arts



Venus Ex Machina’s Phone Home is a rotary dial telephone hacked to play lullabies. Viewers are invited to use the dials and call the country code of their home. Drawing on the famed line in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. and the distortion of longing found within, Ex Machina draws on the immigrant as alien outsider, functioning as both a calling to long and a longing to call for home.
Venus Ex Machina is an award-winning composer and interdisciplinary artist with a background in mathematics. Her projects include releases on NON Worldwide and AD93, an installation for Hyperdub, a score for ICA & Channel’s short film series Random Acts, and projects with Berklee College of Music, Slade School of Fine Art, Tate Britain, SHAPE Platform, Wysing Arts Centre, and the V&A. She developed a ‘pirate’ opera as a Fellow of CTM Festival, and has also led workshops on radio transmitter building, influenced by her fascination with the mythical and borderless nature of radio communication.
 
This installation is in the Lower Gallery, part of the exhibition Nine Nights: Channel B. Entry with an exhibition ticket

Open to the public from 12 – 9pm, Tuesday – Sunday.

Tuesday: Free for all visitors

Wednesday – Sunday: £5 (+ £1 booking fee for non-Members), free for all ICA Members

Free exhibition entry with every ticket to the cinema or theatre.