The Telephone: Art Reflecting Life?The Telephone: Art Reflecting Life?

When you stop and think about it, what is more appealing, a phone or a computer?

Seems like telephones are the news these days with phones in the movies and all those songs related to phones that got a rise out of me when my buddy Eric didn't list The Telephone Man song. Of course it's risque, and perhaps rightfully so when you consider the numerous tele-industries that grew out of the telecommunications industry and created a cash tether from users reaching for their phones to make billable calls for their questionable entertainment.Even more revealing will be the future of the telephone. My question is what will be lost to the new? Meaning, forward thinking tends to forget about the past (good), and while some users and vendors (there are a few) don't want to forget, most of us do want to forget about and avoid repeating the (bad) past or misgivings about the phone.

While I don't find certain phones appealing and won't sell ugly phones, for me "neat looking" doesn't count unless it provides neat and easy to use features. You can argue either way, but style and styling phones have a long world history. Now go ahead, push my button, punk! Remember those Rich Little recordings to load onto your "answering machine" that usually got a laugh or two?

Okay, for those of you that still think: "a phone is just a phone" I wonder if you really understand that "a phone isn't just a phone" and that all those wonderful people that make a living off of phones may just disagree with you. After all, where else can you find such things--as phones in all corners of our lives? Is it merely art reflecting life or could it be that you just don't believe or think of telephones as art?

Perhaps we don't share the same appreciations of the telephone. When you visit other places do you notice the phones being used? What phone and type is found at the lobby entrance of the Gaylord Palms in Orlando? It isn't a Cisco IP phone. Can you determine the manufacturer of a phone by its ringing? Do you notice the phones (manufacturer and model) used in films, advertising and other media? (You can bet that the factory guys notice.)

In the movie Matrix the telephone played a key part that enabled folks to get in and out of trouble. Many of you grew up with a Telephone Classic Toy. James Martin wrote about the Wired Public in his book "The Wired Society." Telephones also show up in the stranger forms of art: Babe the Pig's friend's Baah-Ram-Ewe. Yes there are even works of Phone Art for sale.

Phones have evolved from the times we would call one another and play songs using the dial pad to the more modern era of man downloading and using ringtones on audiences' cell phones to conduct a Telesymphony using their airtime. The 2001 Dialtones symphony is a testament of those crazy times. Before TouchTone arrived, some of us knew that we could tap out numbers using the plunger ears on the phone. Later on we discovered means of using a ground wire in phone booths to get free dial tone to call girls while the geeky older guys used blue boxes and the old Cap'n Crunch whistle to wreak havoc on the Bell System. Phone phreaking is still a fulltime pastime for many folks.

In fact, when you stop and think about it - what is more appealing, a phone or a computer? If numbers are any indication of the answer--and mobile phones seem to be off the charts--then I think you'd agree that telephones win hands down. If you don't agree or are unsure in your response, take a look around you. If you're still not convinced, read this post again the next time you consciously reach for a phone. Life, it seems, does make art plentiful, at least when it comes to phones and how they are used.When you stop and think about it, what is more appealing, a phone or a computer?