February 21, 2006
Mission ringtone symphony
The bag check area at the Strand bookstore,NYc, has about 120 cubbies. Phones left in the bag there are going off regularly, the employees are now used to it.
Improv Everywhere, the New York City scene-makers known for causing random inexplicable acts of absurdity, thought it might be turned into a cell phone symphony. They asked participants to come with a bag and their phone.
"The first step was to divide everyone up by cell phone brand. In addition to creating a cacophony of 60 phones going off at once, I also wanted to have different sections play at different times, like a symphony. Instead of the "string section", we would have the "Samsung section".
The crowd divided into brands and each group tried to find a common ring tone that all of their phones had. The Nokia group had the "Nokia Tune", Motorola folks had "Hello Moto", etc. Those without common ring tones would either partner up with someone who did, or partner with someone else without a common tone. Agents began to pair off and trade phone numbers, deciding who would enter the store and who would be a caller.
Small groups of agents headed down one at a time to enter the store and check their bags.
Once everyone was in the store with their bag checked, I called our conductor Agent Kula back in Union Square and told him it was time for the first movement. He counted down and had all 60 callers hit send simultaneously.
At once, the phones started ringing in the bag check. In addition to the pre-set groups of phones, there were many more random ring tones firing off in a maelstrom of high-pitched beeps. The primary audience for this mission was the Strand employees, specifically the two who were working at the bag check."
Via Popgadget.
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