Starting this week, the city is turning all Manhattan payphones into “time machines,” courtesy of a new public art project: “Recalling 1993.” The early 90s were an interesting time in New York: that year, the World Trade Center was bombed (for the first time), and the play “Angels in America” debuted.

New Yorkers are invited to make a free call to 1-(855) FOR-1993 (sadly this won’t work from your mobile phone) to hear oral histories of what life was like two decades ago in the neighborhood where the payphone is. Those not near a Manhattan payphone can get a sample by going to the “Recalling 1993" website.

The phone-based art project is also part of an art exhibit called "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star," which is running through May 26, 2013 at the New Museum.

New York City has been trying to find new uses for its 13,000 still-in-use payphones. As we reported last summer, the city unveiled an ambitious plan to turn a handful of its payphones into public Wi-Fi hotspots. In 2003, Verizon announced a similar move to bring some Wi-Fi to 1,000 of NYC's payphones across the city—a plan that was later scaled back to 500.