Not to be too picky, but the prank and oscene phone call scene is actually
a very ripe field for art, especially in the world of caller ID. Hearing out
obscene phone calls often does produce something interesting, as a genre,
you have the threat, the obscene, or the all out weird; the threats are
fascinatingly horrific as a result of anonymity and the disguises used to
cover up a voice; meanwhile most pranks are done by people as afraid
of you as you are of them, creating a rather strange phenomenon altogether.
But as I said, hearing out the obscene phone calls can be a muse; for example,
when I recieved a series of hang ups after saying "hello" I simply star 69'd
the number and answered it through a bullhorn while the phone was placed inside
my acoustic guitar. I wish I had a recording of the end result; but the gesture
inspired me to create my industrial folk music in which I scream though a
bullhorn while strumming a detuned guitar missing two strings; reciting the
mundane conversations we have in daily life, ie, "I star 69d you, you must have
called"
or ordering chinese food, or giving directions to the library.
So, as to say, yes; obscene phone calls ARE worth hearing out, and finding
new ways of dealing with them, to challenge yourself, whereas hanging up the phone
is a rather simple answer. Sure, a simple answer to a simple problem, but isn't
fluxus all about complex solutions to simple problems, and vice versa?
Just my two cents. I don't mean to get on anyones nerves.
-e.
ann klefstad wrote:
> Brad, why are you treating this as a freedom-of-speech issue? No one is trying
> to silence you; the one instance you're on about did not involve anything but
> the equivalent of an obscene phone call. Have you ever been the target of such
> calls? Do you think one has the responsibility to "hear them out"? Yeah,
> right.
