Kings College London

King's College London

The Curiosity Cabinet x The SIM Project

The SIM Project by artist and anthropologist Liz Hingley draws on the smartphone SIM card as an international symbol of connection and an intimate tool of relation that unlocks local and global networks, to rethink perspectives on mobility. Over a thousand SIM-scale glass artworks have been made in workshops held in eight countries—from Finland to Cyprus to the USA- to create a collective mobile archive. The project evolved through a residency at King’s College London’s Digital Humanities Department.

A bespoke 3D printed camera and miniature darkroom enable workshop participants to print a chosen image held on their smartphone that gives them 'a sense of belonging,’ onto a SIM-scale glass model. Around a table, they then polish a frame with a registered pendant design and stamp it with a number of personal meaning, to mirror the International Identification Number on the back of a SIM card. Each person makes one piece to add to the collection and another to keep and wear.

'Waymarkers', supported and produced by King's College London and displayed in The Curiosity Cabinet at 171 The Strand, showcases the most precious images of hundreds of people with roots in over 40 countries. These SIM-scale windows into people's everyday lives, memories and relations are illuminated in multiple formats and scales - as a collective mosaic, framed pendants and blown up into a slideshow projection.

Alongside the collection of over a thousand SIM artworks, an elaborate jewellery piece of knotted silver threads and stone fragments has been unveiled in The Curiosity Cabinet for the first time, inspired by The Portland Global Friendship Group and the international trade of Portland Stone.

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Credits

Curator

King's Culture, King's College London

Design Team

Liz Hingley, Egemen Kiziclan, Frank Menger, Sofie Boons, Alphabetical Studio

Sponsors / Partners

4JET Glass, Counterpoints Arts, King’s College London’s Department of Digital Humanities, Houston Center for Photography, Migration Mobilities Bristol

2025 Pavilions