Opinion

The hills are alive, with the sound of mobiles

Although most people consider the high-pitched, bleeping tones emanating from cell phones around them as necessary evils at best, wonderful expressions of personality at worst, you would be hard pressed to find somebody who thinks tinny renditions of Beethoven`s Fifth could rank as serious music.

08 July 2002

Although most people consider the high-pitched, bleeping tones emanating from cell phones around them as necessary evils at best, wonderful expressions of personality at worst, you would be hard pressed to find somebody who thinks tinny renditions of Beethoven`s Fifth, Auld Lang Syne or the Big Brother theme could rank as serious music, even with Reed Richards-like stretches of the imagination.

In fact, throughout any serious cultural appreciation event, such as a theatre, film or live music performance, any intrusion by those tinny terrorists is regarded with steely-eyed disgust, even glints of violence. Imagine now, 200 little mobile melodies merrily twittering away, nearly simultaneously! Aargh!

Golan Levin, an enterprising übergeek fresh from the MIT`s Media Lab created what would seem to most people an agony of sound. Dialtones (A Telesymphony) is a concert he composed that is performed entirely using the audience`s mobile phones. Originally presented at the 2001 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, this unique work has won acclaim for its ingenuity and innovation throughout the wireless world.

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