
Rebecca Furst in the feature length film drama ‘Super Connected’ © TA Music 2024
“We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection” – Sherry Turkle
If you’ve heard Tim Arnold’s album ‘Super Connected‘ you’ll be familiar with Sherry Turkle, the MIT social psychologist whose groundbreaking work in the study of technology and human relationships inspired Tim’s song ‘Start A Conversation’.
If you’re coming to Super Connected LIVE this May, you’re going to see the album’s aspirations of conversation over ‘connection’ come to life through direct action in a completely new experience.
You’ll see the album performed live by Tim, who is acting on stage, as well as on screen. Because you’re also watching a feature length film on the big screen about our dependency on the small screens in our pockets. Half-way through the film, when you hear Stephen Fry talking about an ‘iHead‘, you’ll know you’re not at a gig, the cinema or even a theatre anymore. It’s a happening.
And there’s something extra special Tim is hoping audiences will take part in. He says:
“Super Connected LIVE is an exploration of smartphone and social media addiction, and how that impacts a family. I don’t have my phone on stage when I’m performing, and I love it when the audience join me in that small sacrifice, so we can stop ‘connecting’ and truly BE with each other”

Dixie McDevitt, Kate Alderton and Tim Arnold star as the tech-torn Curtis family in feature length film drama ‘Super Connected’
PhoneFreeze
Before the live performance begins, the audience members are invited to take part in our ‘PhoneFreeze’ ritual by simply placing your phone into a lockable pouch which you keep with you at all times. It means, that like Tim, you’re disconnected from your phone for 90 minutes.
Tim and the show’s director Kate Alderton came up with the idea of PhoneFreeze to help the audience absorb the dual attention-grab of the album and film.
‘SmartPhones create networks. People create communities’
– Jonathan Haidt
When Super Connected launched at The Roundhouse in London, we found PhoneFreeze had hidden treasures. Our phoneless audience had a way to experience the freedom (or discomfort) of being completely free from the digital tug of constant connectivity. And we had each other’s attention to share and learn together, what that means for us all.
Some audience members who were anxious about disconnecting from their phones have told us that they managed to keep the phone off until the next day. But the show isn’t advocating for a permanent removal of phones from society. But being in control of our phones? That is something we absolutely support.
Not having your phone at a Super Connected LIVE show is not an artist restricting the audience. It’s a way to get inside the artist’s mind, share the creative process and unplug from the multiple companies that keep us tapping and scrolling. And it’s beautiful to behold.
‘If we don’t truly know what something is programmed to do, chances are it is programming us.’ – Douglas Rushkoff

The ‘Screenless Social’ gathering at The Roundhouse after Super Connected LIVE, 2023. Shared space to connect without Smartphones.
Screenless Social
After seeing Tim perform, the audience were welcomed into the performance space to connect with him, the creative team and each other, to get curious about how one type of connection might affect the other, and to help one another through the strange bind we find ourselves in today, when we navigate our digital lives.
That’s when we named it for what it was, for all future shows: a ‘Screenless Social’.
Not a radical idea for everyone, but many guests found both PhoneFreeze and the Screenless Social to be surprisingly eye opening and helpful to understand their relationship with their own phone.
“Super Connected is not so much about criticising new methods of communication, as it is about not forgetting the ‘old’ methods. Eye to eye. Mouth to ear. I believe we can embrace the old and the new for a wider and more inclusive future. But we’re going to have to get together once in a while, without phones, to understand what our embodied human selves are comfortable with. That’s Super Connected LIVE, and the audience play an integral part in it.”
At the end of the performance, a member of our team will open your pouch whenever you feel you need your phone again. Remember, no one ever takes your phone away from you! You keep it for the whole event. It just gets locked into a cosy little pouch for the show which you can keep in your pocket. We know PhoneFreeze isn’t for everyone, and it is by no means mandatory. We’re not politicians. We’re theatre makers playing with form. And we’d love you to play along with us for Super Connected LIVE.
Nim Arnold, Producer (Super Connected)
The Super Connected LIVE tour starts on 9th May at Quay Arts on the Isle of Wight, taking in further dates in Liverpool, Brighton, Bath & Reading before ending at The Cockpit Theatre London on 4th June. Book here.