[NewMusic] "My Cage (Silence for Cellphone)"

[Robair, Gino]

>From Wired:

*****
For Immediate Release
Contact: jonathon_keats at yahoo.com
CONCEPTUAL RINGTONE SILENCES CELLPHONES
Subscribers Hear Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds of Silence Whenever
Someone Calls Them... Artist Jonathon Keats Offers Silent Ringtone
Free-of-Charge Through Leading Mobile Content Provider Start Mobile...
Silence May Go Platinum in 2007...
JANUARY 5, 2007 - Since the beginning of time, pure silence has been
available only in the vacuum of space. Now conceptual artist Jonathon Keats
has digitally generated a span of silence, four minutes and thirty-three
seconds in length, portable enough to be carried on a cellphone. His silent
ringtone, freely distributed through special arrangement with Start Mobile,
is expected to bring quiet to the lives of millions of cellphone users, as
well as those close to them.
"When major artists such as 50 Cent and Chamillionaire started making
ringtones, I realized that anything was possible in this new medium," says
Mr. Keats, whose previous art projects include attempting to genetically
engineer God. "I also knew that another artist, John Cage, had formerly
tried, and failed, to create a silent interlude."
Mr. Cage once famously composed four minutes and thirty-three seconds of
silence, which was performed on a piano, in front of a live audience, back
in 1952. By all accounts, though, his silence was imperfect, owing to the
limitations of the technology available at the time. "John Cage can't be
blamed," says Mr. Keats. "He lived in an analog age."
"My Cage (Silence for Cellphone)" dispenses with performer and piano and
auditorium, instead utilizing a continuous stream of silence produced on a
computer, and compressed to standard ringtone format. This silence can be
heard whenever a call comes through, whether out on the street, at a noisy
concert, or in the quiet of home. A remastering of Mr. Cage's classic, "My
Cage" is also a remix, according to Mr. Keats. "It introduces serendipity
into the equation, delivering performances unpredictably, whenever calls
come unexpectedly. You never know."
The silence may take place without the listener being aware of it. Or the
listener may hear a call - phantom silence - when there's no one on the
line. "'My Cage' is all-encompassing," Mr. Keats explains. "Even those who
don't use it as a ringtone have the potential to experience it, in the
silence of an unanswered call."
While noting that Mr. Keats doesn't have a cellphone of his own, and may be
less-than-qualified to make global pronouncements about them, Start Mobile
CEO John Doffing believes that "My Cage" may be a platinum hit. "People want
a respite," he says, "and not everybody has the time or money to go to a
spa. The virtues of silence are unsung."
Nevertheless, Mr. Keats is careful not to take credit for silence in
general, and hopes that people will bootleg his creation, just as he was
inspired by John Cage. Mr. Cage, who died in 1992, could not be reached for
comment.
"My Cage (Silence for Cellphone)" can be downloaded now at
www.startmobile.net/433
* * *
Jonathon Keats is a conceptual artist, novelist, and critic. For his most
recent project, at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, he exhibited
extraterrestrial abstract artwork. He has also attempted to genetically
engineer God in a petri dish, in collaboration with scientists at the
University of California, and petitioned Berkeley to pass a fundamental law
of logic - A=A - a work commissioned by the city's annual Arts Festival. He
has been awarded Yaddo and MacDowell fellowships, and his projects have been
documented by KQED-TV and the BBC World Service, as well as periodicals
ranging from The San Francisco Chronicle to New Scientist. He is represented
by Modernism Gallery in San Francisco. For more information, please contact
Mr. Keats at
jonathon_keats at yahoo.com, or see
http://www.modernisminc.com/artists/Jonathon_KEATS/