Vodafone and Britart.com's attempts to "break from traditional representation" with screen logos from well-known British artists ('Logo a-go-go', 23 July 2001) exhibits all the febrile imagination that brought us WAP and threatens 3G disappointment. Abstract artist George Barber comments that "art today is all about context" but the real geographical context in which these pieces will be experienced is not even considered. There are other contexts too: time, the current activity of the phone user, and their personal preferences. Add to that possibility of interacting with the piece, and the connection with other phone users (and the network itself), and you have the basis for really interesting artistic investigations that might reveal some 3G services people would actually value.
Sent for publication to the Guardian newspaper (UK)
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