02 Oct Telephones

An ironic result of the smart phone revolution is that phone calls have become a minor arrow in the telephone quiver. A 1995 video from the Swiss-Swiss-American artist and compser Christian Marclay, courtesy of Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art, underscores the point. Marclay combines a bewildering array of phone calls from 130 Hollywood films into a mesmerizing, seven-minute narrative. [Video link]

From the museum notes:

Using his building blocks – dialing, greeting, conversing, farewells and hang-ups – Marclay plays with the notion of cinematic continuity by splicing newer and older films into his own narrative. The video opens with a man walking into a booth, the word “telephone” in all caps, he slowly dials. His action is followed by several more clips of dialing, technology jumps from clunky rotary dialers from the pre-area code days to “up-to-date” push buttons phones (apple would later, ahem, appropriate the spirit of  Telelphones for an ad). Perhaps most impressive is Marclay’s ability to create a story from such disparate sources. Clips begin to talk to one another – A man speaks deliberately into the mouthpiece “I haven’t been able to think or concentrate on anything except you.” the video cuts to a second man who hesitantly says “I see….”

Telephones is book-ended by with the camera pulling out from a woman whose call has abruptly ended, she stutters “h-hello?” and slowly hangs up the phone. The word “TELEPHONE” looms above her.

Apple appropriated Marclay’s idea for a 2007 TV ad previewing the introduction of the iPhone.