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tone def "Dialtones is a large-scale concert performance whose sounds are wholly produced through the carefully choreographed dialing and ringing of the audience’s own mobile phones. Because the exact location and tone of each participant’s mobile phone can be known in advance, Dialtones affords a diverse range of unprecedented sonic phenomena and musically interesting structures. Moreover, by directing our attention to the unexplored musical potential of a ubiquitous modern appliance, Dialtones inverts our understandings of private sound, public space, electromagnetic etiquette, and the fabric of the communications network which connects us."
A large reflective surface stretched in front of the audience and cell phones ringing randomly inside a darkened room--sounds like the Times Square moviegoing experience! Seriously, this kind of MIT Media Lab product just pounds you with technology: it's a loss leader for the tech industry, crafted by geeks whose "art" sense is based on juvenile memories of rock concert multimedia shows. A spotlight hits the audience member when his/her phone rings? What happens next, Jerry Springer comes down the aisle? Corn-y. The piece assumes an audience member with near-infinite time, patience, and trust, willing to queue for a seat assignment, surrender one's private number (to who exactly?), accept a downloaded "custom ringtone" for the sake of one concert (to remove the tone, you're on your own?), and then sit and wait for thirty minutes of flashing lights and antiphonal chirps while staring at a cheesy graphic display. The authors dispense grant-panel-friendly bullshit when they say the audience is an "active" participant in the piece. One's creative input consists of choosing a ringtone (doesn't the phone company also call this "creativity"?) and deciding what exotic handwaving motion to make when the phone rings and that spotlight hits you. The prospectus doesn't mention another option you have that would definitely affect the "texture" of the piece: switching off your phone.
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- dave 10-09-2002 6:15 pm
A large reflective surface stretched in front of the audience and cell phones ringing randomly inside a darkened room--sounds like the Times Square moviegoing experience! Seriously, this kind of MIT Media Lab product just pounds you with technology: it's a loss leader for the tech industry, crafted by geeks whose "art" sense is based on juvenile memories of rock concert multimedia shows. A spotlight hits the audience member when his/her phone rings? What happens next, Jerry Springer comes down the aisle? Corn-y. The piece assumes an audience member with near-infinite time, patience, and trust, willing to queue for a seat assignment, surrender one's private number (to who exactly?), accept a downloaded "custom ringtone" for the sake of one concert (to remove the tone, you're on your own?), and then sit and wait for thirty minutes of flashing lights and antiphonal chirps while staring at a cheesy graphic display. The authors dispense grant-panel-friendly bullshit when they say the audience is an "active" participant in the piece. One's creative input consists of choosing a ringtone (doesn't the phone company also call this "creativity"?) and deciding what exotic handwaving motion to make when the phone rings and that spotlight hits you. The prospectus doesn't mention another option you have that would definitely affect the "texture" of the piece: switching off your phone.
- tom moody 10-09-2002 7:24 pm [add a comment]