Elevators / lifts are strange devices.

We need them. 2 billion people use elevators every day. The cities become more vertical and we’ll be using elevators even more.

We avoid them. Elevators are not just transportation mechanisms, they’re also places of our phobias and nightmares, scenes for thrillers, horror and sci-fi films.

We depend on them. When we’re old, sick, have kids or have limited mobility – we must use them. Are they comfortable for all of us? Do we fit?

Malls and skyscrapers have beautiful panoramic lifts, but many of us living in the post-USSR countries, associate lifts with dirty, smelly, scratched, dim-lit narrow boxes with burnt buttons. In Belarus we now have ‘Safe Elevator’ state program aimed to replace all the old lifts with newer and more comfortable ones.

But what about social elevators? Do they work for you? Do you fit them?

If we stuck in an elevator – we can press a button that connects you to a service call center – they’ll save us! If we stuck in the social elevator – who do we call? What do we do? Is there a button to help?

Concept & content: Volha Salakheyeva
Sound: Pavel Niakhayeu

*’impossible elevator’ image is a remix of ‘impossible cube‘ created by 4c wiki user and distributed under CC BY-SA 3.0