New Exhibition – Going Mobile
‘GOING MOBILE’ EXHIBITION EXPLORES 40 YEAR HISTORY OF THE MOBILE PHONE
‘Going Mobile’ opens on 21st October and is on show at PK Porthcurno, Museum of Global Communications until October 2024.
This October, PK Porthcurno, Museum of Global Communications, opens a new exhibition on the 40-year history of the mobile phone. Delivered in partnership with the Mobile Phone Museum, and sponsored by Vodafone UK, ‘Going Mobile’ explores the amazing journey of this everyday communication device from an exclusive status symbol, used mainly for voice calls, to a minicomputer in our pockets.
Curated by PK Porthcurno, ‘Going Mobile’ includes over seventy phones and objects selected from the Mobile Phone Museum’s extraordinary collection of over 2700 unique devices which range from the earliest ‘brick’ devices of the 1980s, through flip phones, sliders, and clamshells, to the latest smartphones. This will be the first time that the phones have been on public display as a collection.
The exhibition traces the development of mobile phone communications and its roots in the history of cable and wireless technology, dating back to the 1840s. With a combination of photos, objects, illustrations, and animations, it explains the evolution of the ‘generations’, how a mobile phone call works, and the timeline of mobile milestones. Importantly it also explores the role of the mobile phone industry in social, economic, and environmental questions and how the mobile phone has become, for many of us, not just a way of connecting with others but an extension of ourselves.
‘Going Mobile’ features original animations and illustrations by Falmouth-based animator Syd Murphy. Mobile-related work by celebrated photographers, Rankin and Levon Biss is also on display at the museum for the duration of the exhibition. The exhibition poster artwork was created by Penzance-based illustrator Mat McIvor whose design will also feature on limited edition t-shirts for sale in the PK Porthcurno Museum and online shop.
For further information see www.mobilephonemuseum.com and www.PKPorthcurno.com/featured-exhibitions
