Review - Cellphonia: In the News

Max Yates '06
B.S. Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Student of Experimentalist Dr. Pauline Oliveros

    Multi-line conference call technology has streamlined business transactions across the country and around the globe. But today it has found new use on the cutting edge of experimental media. Cellphonia: In the News is a "location based karaoke cell phone opera" that makes use of an instantaneous libretto of news clips, cell phone tones and a diverse group of participants located anywhere in the world. As cell phone users call in, a server queries the capabilities of the phone to determine its musical attributes and also sends RSS Newsfeed text to each participant's phone. The open source application then generates musical interludes from the cell phones that the participants' newsfeed can be sung to.

    In the latest piece on the web (http://cellphonia.no-ip.info/listen.m3u), the Newsfeed is a combination of three stories: one regarding the release of three British hostages by the Palestinian Brigades of the Mujahideen on December 31, 2005, one regarding a group of gunmen who stormed a Palestinian office demanding jobs on December 31, 2005, and another regarding Australian skier Lydia Ierodiaconou crash landing during the aerial competition that would have qualified her for the Olympics on February 23, 2006.

    At the onset of the opera it is difficult to understand what is happening. Mesmeric voices bewitch a steel-toned, water-trickling beat with fragmented statements: "in Gaza for three hours", "agreed to discuss their demands", "a previously unknown Palestinian", "group called Brigades of the Mujahideen", "freed three British hostages", "as a gesture of goodwill", "but is demanding Britain", "pressure on Israel". The voices repeat similar sayings over and over in an unpredictable order and variation until a new set of phrases are overlaid: "screams that go jump, jump", "Olympic dreams", "jump in qualifying", "falling into snow", "screams echo". But one is left to wonder how the fragments relate to one another in a broader sense.

    About midway through the opera, the musical interlude becomes more upbeat and hip-hoppedy with a new group of statements: "in the latest of a string", "agreed to discuss their demands", "about 50 armed men in masks occupied", "a Palestinian government office", "in Gaza for three hours on Saturday", and "until Palestinian officials". One can even catch a small error in the performance when an accompanist forgets her lines and improvises, "in a Palestinian 'I-forget-what-you-said' office". Of course, these fragmented verses don't last long before the original beat returns with the first set of phrases as described above. Only shortly thereafter the piece comes to a close.

    After reviewing the phrases and trying to determine how they all pieced together, I conducted a Google investigation that led me directly to the news sources. I learned that Australia's Sunday Times was the source of the British hostages article titled "Hostages freed, captors demand pressure on Israel". The exact text from the article read, "A previously unknown Palestinian group called Brigades of the Mujahideen says it has freed three British hostages as a gesture of goodwill, but is demanding Britain and Europe put pressure on Israel." Clearly, the words contained in the opera are identical, although in a very tangled order. This is likely a result of cell phone algorithm fed by the RSS Newsfeed.

    Similarly, The New York Times was the source of the Palestinian gunmen article titled "Gunmen Take Over Palestinian Office in Gaza, Seeking Jobs" in which the exact text read, "About 50 armed men in masks occupied a Palestinian government office in Gaza for three hours on Saturday until Palestinian officials agreed to discuss their demands, in the latest of a string of protests there by gunmen seeking jobs." Again, the variations are clearly noted between the Newsfeed and the opera. Finally, Australia's online news source The Age posted the article titled "Screams echo as a dream ends" regarding Ierodiaconou's failed qualifier.

    Although the three articles seemed to have no significant interconnection, it was important for me to understand their context with current events, for once I knew, I appreciated the artistry of the experimental media even more.

    Though the mysterious lexicon of words makes the opera unique, so too do the dynamic sounds from the cell phones. The ever changing voices and musical interludes that mirror an icy cave's ghostly clamors and metallic tintinnabulations combine to create a truly mysterious and fascinating piece of art.

    With just a cell phone it is amazing what kind of music can be created. As seen from Cellphonia: In the News it is also clear that enormous meaning can go into its creation. Just like any other form of art, the Cell Phone Opera requires an imagination. But with a little effort, a newsfeed and a cellular device in hand, a few callers around the world can create a masterful work of art.