Cellphonia: In The News is a location based karaoke cell phone opera about the
alienation of the contemporary technophile that includes text,
sound, moving images and allows participants outside the
core players to contribute as a remote chorus. Cellphonia begins
anywhere anytime five people gather.
Listen to work-in-progress: cellphonia.no-ip.info/listen.m3u
Add your voice:
Berkeley CA USA +01 (510) 280-1697
Brighton UK +44 1273 808540
Long Description
Cellphonia: In The News is an open source cell phone and Internet application that
creates a street theater live opera via a conference call shared by
user/participants. A server coordinates the instant RSS Newsfeed libretto
that is transmitted as text to each of the participant. The server queries
the cell phones of the participants to determine each phones capability. In
this way the server can make a scalable set of media that takes maximum
advantage of each participants phone, allowing a large number of cellphone
users to participate anytime anywhere. The daily newsfeed and the location
of each phone algorithmically generates music and a libretto that the
participants sing, karaoke style. By using robust tried and true multiline
conference call technology, a sophisticated and interactive score can
generate cues and musical interludes that lead each singer through the
piece. Additionally, using SMS, WAP and various other ubiquitous text
formats the libretto with ongoing visual cues are "pushed" to each user. In
this way the location, time of day, and news all converge to create a
unique and ever changing social experience.
Experimental Approach
Unlike many new media works for cell phone, this piece takes full advantage
of what the cell phone does best: transferring audio from location to
location. Another innovation is the use of an autonomous router and
libretto generating server that is available 24/7. A worldwide user group
is provided with a means of unique social interaction that refers to a
centuries old tradition, opera, in a new context that leverages the
broadening technological base in an accessible manner.
Artists
Steve Bull
Scot Gresham-Lancaster
Tim Perkis
Reviews
Max Yates - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Conferences
ISEA 2006 (2006.08.7-13), San Jose CA - Cellphonia: In The News
Mobile Music Technology (2006.03.2-3), Brighton UK - Work-in-Progress
Grants Received
New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA)
Harvest Works NYSCA Grant Administrator
Libretto
JERUSALEM Gunmen Take Over Palestinian Office in Gaza, Seeking Jobs
PALESTINE A previously unknown Palestinian group...
alito news.yahoo.com (with prosidy rules of "-" + "," + "." + [prepositions] + [conjunctions] as delimeters)
bev theOnion (10 word count for each story voice)
bev4 (words > 4 characters from 10 word count)
cia news.google (5 word count for each story voice)
cia3 ((words > 2 characters) - ("the") from 5 word count)
zombie theOnion (10 word count for each story voice)
zombie4 (words > 4 characters from 10 word count)
zombiePRO (for 1st song demo with prosidy rules of alito)
Process
User Experience
Prosidy Search - 2005 October 31
Tests
zombiePRO (2005.11.12) 1st song demo with prosidy rules of alito
Video/Audio (2005.09.17, 2MB) : Dinner gathering singing "a cappella" off shared RSS prepared libretto:
How To
Asterisk Open Source PBX
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