Messages To Heaven

“Messages to Heaven” is a memorial art installation created in 2026 by Nicole Ruggiero and programmer Bjorn Stange. In this installation, three Nokia 3360 cell phones send text messages to deceased loved ones. Each Nokia 3360 contains a Nokia screen driven by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, both of which are housed inside the Nokia phone shell.

For Nicole, this project was both cathartic and very emotionally difficult. "In the past 15 years, I have lost all of her family members who raised me...my dad, my grandma, and my great uncle. I don’t have much left other than a few pictures, so I decided to create an installation that would allow me to remember and communicate with them."

The Pis are running python to drive the screen, tailscale for secure access, and ansible for device management. The texts can also be updated as long as the pis are connected to wifi.

Nicole and Bjorn won a small grant for a Seattle-based art and tech hackathon called, Electric Sea, during which they finished the majority of the programming and animations for the project. They received help with soldering from Maks Surguy. After the hackathon, where they showed a work in progress, Nicole spent time 3D printing decorative objects to turn each phone mount into a small shrine.