Jonathon Keats' My Cage Ringtone: Shhh!

In a world full of Crazy Frog and Chamillionaire ringtones, Jonathon Keats is breathing some fresh air into the annoying market of sounds with his My Cage ringtone. Available for download at Start Mobile, My Cage is a 4:33 “interlude of digitally-generated silence.” While the soundless ring is valuable in its own right, it also comes with a great piece of Keats’ conceptual art: a bootleg of John Cage’s heralded 1952 performance of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, performed on a piano in front of a live audience. 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. Oh, and it’s important to note that to fully enjoy this art, and to give callers the opportunity to enjoy it, Keats recommends you turn off your voicemail.

Via Wired