Joe McKay

Cell Phone sculpture

This is a series of interactive supltures made between 2007-2009 from prople's disgaurded cell phones.

Chewed Phone

This phone was chewed on by something during it's short life, probably a dog. I removed and repositioned the screen, which still turns on but only produces an eerie yellow glow. The phone is sitting on a slowly rotating platform (motor from a salvaged Epson C80). The display turns off with inactivity, so once a rotation a magnetic reed switch triggers the 0 button on the phone, turning the screen back on.

High Hat Cell Phone

This phone is activated by a foot pedal from a drum kit. The phone's audio is routed through speaker, and when you press the pedal you hear the annoying cell phone opening noise. I owned this phone and loved that I could produce the most annoying sound in the world wherever I went. It's no longer portable, but the speakers make it nice and loud, and the foot pedal leaves your hands free.

Audio Dome

These two phones are set on the 'pick a ring tone' mode. A hole has been drilled through the plastic so the speakers project into the sphere. An arduino has be programed to toggle between two songs on each phone. While the songs have been carefully chosen, the switching is done randomly, so the song is ever changing. The result is a soundscape that is both beautiful and highly annoying.

Gallery Phone

In this particular piece I drilled a hole through the screen, then made a little gallery wall to hang this tiny flat panel abstract artwork. Behind the wall sits the phone on a small wooden scaffolding. A C-clamp serves double duty by both holding the phone on the scaffold, and pressing a button that keeps the display turned on.

Telegraph Phones

Flip phones connected to telegraph keys! A solenoid inside the base snaps the phones open and closed. There are two sets of keys and phones and naturally one key will operate the other phone. At last, we can use these things to communicate with one another!

The Cell Phone Piano

Each key on the keyboard is wired into a key on a cell phone - as you play, you are also dialing. The channels are mixed together and amplified through speakers. Every sound the piano makes is generated by one of the four phones. The white keys play notes and the black keys are people saying the number out loud - English on the left hand and Spanish on the right. Some white keys were left over and I made those percussion instruments.

Graveyard

The LED runs off the cell phone's battery in this graveyard piece. The most recent version is on the left - the LED is much dimmer now, producing a light that looks more like moonlight than a streetlight.