The SIM Project: Memories In Motion

Craft, connection and movement

The SIM Project takes inspiration from the smartphone SIM card - a tiny tool of global connectivity and intimate relation.

The project invites people to create miniature ‘messages to the future’ in the form of photographic pendants using a custom-built camera and mobile darkroom.

The grassroots archive of personal SIM-scale artworks has been created in local workshops across eight countries, connecting people beyond labels and beyond borders —from Cyprus to Morocco, the USA, and the UK. It has been exhibited at the V&A London, the Houston Centre for Photography and was selected for the 2025 London Design Biennale.

‘As an immigrant, I don’t really have roots, I have tendrils, which stretch to different places in the world where there are people I love’
Teacher, Argentina and Cyprus, 2022

Design and Make

Order your own unique SIM pendant or commission a workshop and make your own

All profits go towards the project’s education activities and exhibitions

Find out more

The Story

The project was inspired by a collection of ancient Keys in Coventry, a city of Sanctuary.

SIM cards act as contemporary “keys” to unlock ‘smartphone suitcases’ in a new place, they open up channels to loved ones and personal digital archives to provide a mobile sense of home.

See the first chapter of the project here.

‘A person in any country begins their relationship, adventures, and acquires an identity, temporary or long, when they put the SIM card of that country in their phone.’

Engineer, Syria and UK, 2017