Artists Statement

Where Do Monsters Come From?
“No Gods, just Monsters!”
There haven’t always been towns and cities, full of people hurrying to and fro to school or work. Where now stand shops, factories and offices were once streams, woods and hillsides. And every one of those places, even the loneliest tree standing by itself on the moors, had a monster to guard it. The place belonged to the monster, and the monster belonged to the place. So when towns and cities were built, the monsters had to stay, trapped under the tall buildings made of brick and stone and concrete. And there they remained, for 200 years. Until now. Because the monsters have got very grumpy. They are fed up of people walking on top of them, and they are really fed up of people squashing them under big, heavy cars. They want to live on the streets in the places that belong to them, the places where they used to live, a long time ago. Every time you play Free All Monsters!, whether you are using the Magical Monstervision Machine or setting free your own monsters for other people to find, you are helping to make a world that has monsters living in it again. And that is a much better place for people to live in as well!

• Andrew Wilson (UK) has used mobile phones for creative participation for 10 years. His work includes The Guardian’s SMS poetry competition and City Poems in Leeds and Antwerp. He is a founder member of Thumbprint Co-operative, developing mobile technology for public participation and civic engagement.
• Dr Paul Coulton (UK) is a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University and founder of the Mobile Radicals. He has over 15 years’ research experience in mobile and leads the Mobile Experiences Group of the Nokia Innovation Network, which is an elite group of 20 universities around the world selected by Nokia.

Full text (PDF) p.  397-398