[silence] Fwd: Conceptual Ringtone Silences Cellphones

[mIEKAL aND]

Begin forwarded message:
>
> For Immediate Release
> Contact: jonathon_keats@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 Ringtone 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
> http://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 415/673-9052 or  
> jonathon_keats@yahoo.com, or see
> http://www.modernisminc.com/artists/Jonathon_KEATS/
>
>
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