Social Sandwich

2021. The internet. An obstacle course of disinformation, trolls and depressing news stories. But what if it wasn’t?

Social Sandwich is a project about online encounters with strangers – and the potential for connection rather than conflict. Instead of doom-scrolling during your lunchbreak, talk to someone in another country, see the world from their perspective, and make sense of the world together.

Social Sandwich offers encounters with anonymous strangers at a time when our opportunities for physical travel are limited. It’s partly a playful glimpse into another person’s life and partly an experiment in collaborating with someone anonymous to determine the trustworthiness of the news that appears online. You are invited to indulge your curiosity with a 15 minute message-based conversation, find what you and your partner agree on – and how to keep talking when you don’t. The app that runs the artwork translates so that you can participate in your own language.

Social Sandwich runs 6 – 12 September, with a chat window 13.00 to 14.00 BST/ 14.00 to 15.00 CEST every day when you’ll be paired with a stranger. You can have multiple conversations in that hour, and you can take part every day of the week, or just one or two. 

To register, follow this link: https://fastfamiliar.com/artwork/social-sandwich/

Fast Familiar are a company who create artworks which are playful, participatory and political and which often use digital technology in innovative ways. One of the lead artists is Dan Barnard.