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?
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Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought | Brain Pickings http://bit.ly/5csfGn
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Mobile Mobile – brilliant interactive chandelier made of old phones choired to “sing” Christmas carols http://ow.ly/OejN [Brain Pickings]
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rather awesome christmas installation for lost boys london by James Theophane: http://bit.ly/70mLnj
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Christmas Happy Thought #13: Interactive chandelier made of old phones w Christmas songs http://ow.ly/OejN (via @brainpicker) Splendid!
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Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought http://tinyurl.com/y9ts4ay
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RT @GedyRivera: Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought http://tinyurl.com/y9ts4ay
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chandelier made of phones & Christmas carols: indulge your inner-geek? indeed ; ) thank you @brainpicker http://bit.ly/8lc3wX
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Thanks for the shout out, @brainpicker! Mobile Mobile: A post-modern Christmas tree that tweets. http://bit.ly/5TbDeM
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Dusty phones, giant chandeliers, and a post-modern Christmas tree that tweets. [Excellent installation!] http://tinyurl.com/ygpxgrl
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[...] 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 [...]
[...] La idea del árbol de navidad armada con teléfonos celulares se llama Mobile Mobile en un genial resultado vía Ivanis y Brian Pickings [...]
“Mobile Mobile: The Christmas Tree Retought | Brain Pickings” http://j.mp/6Bzoi6
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The Mobile Mobile — The Christmas Tree Rethought (musical cell phones!) (vid) http://is.gd/5DI10
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A giant interactive chandelier made from old mobile phones http://bit.ly/5i03Bf Very cool
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Ya sé lo que voy a hacer con mis teléfonos móviles viejos las próximas navidades. Incluido el iPhone
http://is.gd/5JER5
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RT @BernieHernie: Ya sé lo que voy a hacer con mis teléfonos móviles viejos las próximas navidades. Incluido el iPhone
http://is.gd/5JER5
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