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

[Barry Threw]

They actually compressed it.

b

P.S.  This has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. 
With lines like "'My Cage' is all-encompassing even those who don't use 
it as a ringtone have the potential to experience it, in the silence of 
an unanswered call." the man either has to be laughing his ass off that 
anyone would give press to this, or possess such an unbelievable amount 
of hubris that  it astounds me.

Perhaps its a meta-conceptual piece about how the art world will buy 
into anything.  Did your worlds just blow apart?!

Here, I present, "John Cage's '4' 33"' For Webpage". 
http://www.barrythrew.com/cage.html
Now, give me money.


Robair, Gino wrote:
>>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/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
> NewMusic at music.mills.edu
> http://music.mills.edu/mailman/listinfo/newmusic
> 

-- 
barry threw
composition : sound : programming
http://www.barrythrew.com
bthrew(at)gmail(dot)com
857-544-3967

(if you would see the stars clearly,
look hard at the surrounding darkness)
		-Ooka Makoto