"There is no telephone art"(A quote by Gregory Battock from New Artists Video)

"In 1973, Jim Pallas began working with the idea of "PhoneyVents". Originally PhoneyVents were audio works that were played to whomever Pallas chose to call, and they were, as he explained"...grounded in the premise that the ringing of a telephone bell elicits a state of focused attention in most Americans. The called person is ready for a communication whose content may be anything. The person has no reasonable expectations: the situation is out of their control." From this idea came another, the "Dialevent", which consists of a number one can call to get a PhoneyVent. This idea was more appealiing to Pallas in that the DialeyVents were less intrusive in nature and more convenient to the artists who composed them and to the recipients....."
Excerpt from an article by Tom Bloomer, The Detroit Artists Monthly, p. 17, January, 1979.

The question of "phone art" is an interesting one. Were there were no telephone activities before the late 1970's that one could call "phone art"? When was the telephone answering machine invented? When did it come into popular use?
People have always been imaginative with their answering machine greetings..
Poet John Giorno had a "Dial-a-Poet" service sometime during the 1970's.
The Detroit Institute of Arts commissioned Pallas to produce CAR-PHONE a series of Dialevents for "Automobile and
 Culture - Detroit Style", in 1985..
 

Disembodied Art

Here's a link to the current activities of a British art group called The Disembodied Art Gallery. You will find here a brief description of their past activities, their aims, and also details about their latest telephone project. 
Disembodied Art Gallerie's Telematic links a short list of quality sites relating to telephone art and concepts. 

More Links

Conceptual Design/Info Art links is Stephen Wilson's comprehensive links to conceptual arts sites, including phone, telecomminication and other electronic art.
917: A code without an Area.  Ben Rubin's  New York cell phone project
Telemuseums List of telephone and telephone history sites. Requires registration (free).
The Payphone Project is a collection of numbers, stories and events involving public payphones.
The Telephone in Photography" A page about an exhibit of art photos about the telephone. Some nice images.
Antique Telephone History Website And telephone collectors contacts.

If you have any ideas, information or stories about early phone art (or phone art of any time), please write me. 

made possible by support from Detroit Art Works
 
Pallas home page 
Comments and Questions 
Ylem's Art on the Edge 

Janet Roos 2001