A payphone that connects you to nature #Art @waxpraxis @ABC7News

Branden Hall posts on Twitter about a hack of an old payphone to make it play sounds from local birds.

The payphone you’ll find along Flower and Erie Avenues in Takoma Park, Maryland may look like a dinosaur on the outside, but it’s what you’ll find living inside this phone that will surprise you.

A couple of years ago the City of Takoma Park commissioned musician and audio producer David Schulman to create an interactive public art installation. He came up with a one-of-a-kind aviary of sorts called the Bird Calls Phone.

Schulman says, “I found a practically mint condition payphone on eBay.”

Local electronics whiz Branden Hall assembled the phone’s circuitry. Schulman produced the audio. Howard Connelly designed a bird sculpture that sits atop of the phone. The renowned McCaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology provided the authentic bird sounds.

Hall states: It’s powered by stuff (& knowledge!) from Adafruit.

Read more and see video on the WJLA website.

Hacking your next project? Let Adafruit supply the means to do so.