Infra­structure

The Hands. The City. The Wire. The Gap. The Line. Silver Is. An archival essay film tracing the infrastructure of care through the history of the telephone — from switchboard operators to voice AI.

Switchboard operators plugging jacks, hands finding the right hole in the dark. Nine public-domain films spanning twenty-five years of telephone labor. A companion piece to Silver Is.

Voice AI helpline serving New York City and Los Angeles. NYC: 172 community resources, live. LA: 601 resources, 2025 fire archive. No app. No login. No waitlist.

200,000 visitors. Real-time resource coordination — shelters, supply drops, volunteer dispatch, missing persons, animal rescue — across affected communities during the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

A mutual aid map for New York City. The predecessor to Silver — mapping community resources before the helpline could answer the call.

Examines voice-based AI in social services through infrastructure, care, and testing frameworks. When does a voice become infrastructure? When it breaks.

Synthesizes telephone operator history, crisis hotline practices, and 26 design principles for voice AI. Each interaction is treated as a care relationship, not a transaction.