Innovation

Artist Teresa Foley is looking for a few good ringtones.

A media literacy consultant, educator and artist-in-residence with media design firm deeplocal, Foley is collecting sounds from the region for a public art project, Locally Toned.  Anyone with an interesting idea for a ring may contribute until the end of June.

The best and most surprising tones will be placed on a window-shopping Web site. Deeplocal is building a MMS service that will allow users to download the rings for free directly to most cellphones.

Foley figures it's the least she can do in this time of economic crisis when ringtones cost between 99-cents to $3.

“It doesn’t have to be Pittsburgh-esque or avant guard,” she says. “One of the most famous ringtones of all time is pure silence.”

Hmmmm.

“I’m open to anything that resonates with Pittburghers,” Foley adds. “Coins dropping, a thread of beads breaking on a hardwood floor, fabric tearing. I’m interested in seeing what Pittsburgh has to share. I’d like to try a baseball ringtone from PNC Park.”

The not-for-profit venture is part of the Old and New Media Residency Program offered through deeplocal and Encyclopedia Destructica, a collaboration that brings artists and ideas together with new technology.

The project hopes to encourage people to create and distribute their own media rather than accepting a more passive role as consumers. Creators of the selected ringtones will have their photo and their ringtone story on the Web site.

“The idea is to replace a consumer oriented system with a system of shared creativity, like a flickr exchange where ideas and creativity replace a system of commerce,” says Foley.

Check out Foley's blog, Locally Toned, and listen. To suggest a ringtone, email locallytoned@gmail.com

To receive Pop City weekly, click here.

Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
Source: Teresa Foley, Locally Toned

Image courtesy Jen Morris