February 16, 2005
The Cellphone as Art Venue
Louise Bourgeois, William Wegman, David Salle and Nam June Paik, world-renowned art innovators, have gained a new outlet for their video art: the cellphone. Nokia Corp., the Finnish phone maker, has commissioned a set of videos to be downloaded like ringtones and gazed upon whenever the spirit calls, reports the WSJ.
""So many stars make work that can rarely be seen," says Juha Hemanus, who is assembling the video art for Nokia in Helsinki. "This makes it possible to bring works by big names to cellphone users."
Owners of art-enabled phones can collect video originals from Nokia's Web site, www.nokia.com/art. (The site also has a list of phone models that are video-compatible.) Nokia won't say how much it pays the artists. For customers, the works are free.
The marketing artistry in cellphone art, though, is about exclusivity. Works can't be forwarded or copied, and come in limited editions of 3,000. A Web site counter clicks off each download.
Related:
-- In November 2003, See my SMS, a Paris based company run by Alexandra de Waresquiel, signed up over 25 contemporary artists, whose artwork could be downloaded onto cell phones; Jeanne SUSPLUGAS, Anne DELEPORTE, Sam SAMORE, Susan SHUP et François-xavier COURREGES all created original artwork for this project.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/2005/02/007148.htm