Culture answerphone at Burnley Mechanics Theatre
Following the success of the Not a Phone interactive installation, developed for the ‘Not a Shop’ Burnley Year of Culture 2027 engagement event, we’re excited to share that the project has evolved and continues to play a part in the town’s cultural journey.
The Not a Phone prototype received fantastic engagement at its debut, sparking curiosity and conversation about what culture means to the people of Burnley. Building on that momentum, we’ve been busy refining the design to make it even more flexible and robust for future events.
While the logical design of Not a Phone remains the same, the system has now been ported from Max/MSP running on macOS to Pure Data (PD) on a Raspberry Pi. This shift makes the project far more portable and reliable for long-term installation and perfect for ongoing use throughout Burnley’s Year of Culture preperations.
The first outing for this updated version took place at the Cultural Capital Exchange: Burnley 2027 Year of Culture Symposium on October 31st, 2025 and is currently installed at Burnley Mechanics Theatre. The Cultural Capital Exchange event brought together artists, organisers, and community leaders to explore how creativity and collaboration can shape Burnley’s cultural future and we were proud to see Not A Phone featured once again as part of that dialogue.
We’re delighted to continue supporting the Burnley Year of Culture 2027 project and look forward to contributing to future installations and events as the celebrations build momentum.