My Cage (Silence for Cellphone)

"My Cage" is a four minute and thirty-three second interlude of digitally-generated silence, freely distributed through Start Mobile as a cellphone ringtone. It can be heard whenever a call comes through, whether out on the street, at a noisy concert, or in the quiet of home. While this is highly useful in its own right, "My Cage" is also a conveniently portable work of conceptual art by Jonathon Keats, revisiting (if not bootlegging) John Cage's most iconic musical composition: four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence performed on a piano, in front of a live audience, back in 1952. Taking advantage of technological advances since then, "My Cage" dispenses with performer and piano and auditorium, providing an experience technically more perfect than Cage's live silence in both production and presentation, a clear improvement over the analog original. A remastering, "My Cage" is also a remix, introducing serendipity into the equation, delivering performances unpredictably, whenever calls come unexpectedly. 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: Even those who don't use it as a ringtone have the potential to experience it, in the silence of an unanswered call.

Download My Cage at www.startmobile.net/433

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• cellphone
• ringtone
• conceptual
• art
• music
• remix
• bootleg
• remastering
• digital
• silence
• cage
• keats
• chamillionaire
• 50
• cent