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ted.com

21

Dec

2009

Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought

Dusty phones, giant chandeliers, and a post-modern Christmas tree that tweets.

This month, interactive artist James Theophane was tasked with creating a holiday experience that embodied the spirit of collaboration for London ad agency Lost Boys. When he heard that there had been an agency-wide cell phone upgrade two months earlier, leaving behind fifty old phones, Theophane decided to upcycle the old phones into a reinterpretation of the idea of the Christmas tree and its role as a communal focal point.

The result was Mobile Mobile, a giant interactive chandelier, where each hanging phone plays a different note of a Christmas carol and flashes in time.

The elaborate scheme works by assigning a tone to each phone and making it individually addressable by a computer to create the choral arrangement, bringing the choir of devices to life.

Visitors and onlookers can “play” the installation from their browser, and it has also been wired to respond to tweets.

Indulge your inner geek with a behind-the-scenes look at the rather impressive production process. And if you have an old phone lying around, unless you can wire it up into a brilliant interactive chandelier, why not consider donating it to Hope Phones?

Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.

18 Responses

  1. Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought | Brain Pickings http://bit.ly/5csfGn

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    lRio_de_Janeiro on December 21st, 2009 at 8:22 am
  2. Mobile Mobile – brilliant interactive chandelier made of old phones choired to “sing” Christmas carols http://ow.ly/OejN [Brain Pickings]

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    brainpicker on December 21st, 2009 at 10:17 am
  3. rather awesome christmas installation for lost boys london by James Theophane: http://bit.ly/70mLnj

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    roomware on December 21st, 2009 at 10:20 am
  4. Christmas Happy Thought #13: Interactive chandelier made of old phones w Christmas songs http://ow.ly/OejN (via @brainpicker) Splendid!

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Lydiette on December 21st, 2009 at 10:27 am
  5. Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought http://tinyurl.com/y9ts4ay

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    GedyRivera on December 21st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
  6. RT @GedyRivera: Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought http://tinyurl.com/y9ts4ay

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    LifetreeTweets on December 21st, 2009 at 12:22 pm
  7. chandelier made of phones & Christmas carols: indulge your inner-geek? indeed ; ) thank you @brainpicker http://bit.ly/8lc3wX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    chagota on December 21st, 2009 at 12:52 pm
  8. Thanks for the shout out, @brainpicker! Mobile Mobile: A post-modern Christmas tree that tweets. http://bit.ly/5TbDeM

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    HopePhones on December 21st, 2009 at 5:29 pm
  9. Dusty phones, giant chandeliers, and a post-modern Christmas tree that tweets. [Excellent installation!] http://tinyurl.com/ygpxgrl

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    semblance_er on December 22nd, 2009 at 5:06 pm
  10. [...] A travé Iván Adaime me llega este fantástica instalación que resignifica las navedades en el seno de la sociedad mobile. Los dispositivos “bendeados” reproducen ciertas bases que en sincro generan una melodía fabulosa. Visualmente la instalación más que un arbolito me da la sensación de un cielo donde las estrellas de LED componen la sonoridad de una noche -realmente- buena. Dice Iván: Navidades móviles: James Theophane hizo una instalación con celulares que busca reinterpretar la idea del arbolito navideño. El resultado es Mobile Mobile, una suerte de candelabro digital. En su blog se puede ver cómo se armó la cosa… Vía Brain Pickings [...]

  11. [...] La idea del árbol de navidad armada con teléfonos celulares se llama Mobile Mobile en un genial resultado vía Ivanis y Brian Pickings [...]

    Navidades móviles « Cobertura Móvil on December 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
  12. “Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought | Brain Pickings” http://j.mp/6Bzoi6

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    The6thMyth on December 27th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
  13. The Mobile Mobile — The Christmas Tree Rethought (musical cell phones!) (vid) http://is.gd/5DI10

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    drahardja on December 27th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
  14. A giant interactive chandelier made from old mobile phones http://bit.ly/5i03Bf Very cool

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    mingAtT1M on January 2nd, 2010 at 5:35 am
  15. Ya sé lo que voy a hacer con mis teléfonos móviles viejos las próximas navidades. Incluido el iPhone :) http://is.gd/5JER5

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    BernieHernie on January 2nd, 2010 at 9:49 am
  16. RT @BernieHernie: Ya sé lo que voy a hacer con mis teléfonos móviles viejos las próximas navidades. Incluido el iPhone :) http://is.gd/5JER5

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    maikelmuller on January 2nd, 2010 at 11:34 am
  17. [...] BRAINPICKINGS Possibly related posts: (automatically [...]

  18. [...] to nix annoying online ads while generating revenues for social causes, all at no cost to you. The Mobile Mobile reinvented the Christmas tree. A Broken Social Scene musician explored the implicit melodic [...]

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