Is PartyLine the antidote to Zoom fatigue?

Just after we began physical distancing, Jake Matatyaou had an idea: what if every week there was a phone number strangers could call to talk to each other?

"One of the main things that we wanted to achieve was to interrupt or break free from the relentless image economy that we're constantly circulating in," said Matatyaou, a lecturer in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, as well as a designer and writer. "Returning to the human voice was something that was really important to us in coming up with this PartyLine."

Matatyaou spoke to Works In Progress about starting PartyLine. He also discussed his interest in slower modes of work ("I'm a big fan of idleness and promote it wherever I can"), and he shared his experience with teaching and working remotely, something he was already very familiar with.