Ring Ring/Beep Beep
Ring Ring and Beep Beep are a pair of audio and visual works for two telephone boxes proposed by the artist David Bellingham.
An audio recording of local voices speaking the words ‘ring ring’ and an audio recording of local voices speaking the words ‘beep beep’ accompanied by visual posters of the handwritten words Ring Ring and Beep Beep.
The traditional ring and engaged tones were everyday sounds in the time before mobile phones. Participants in the Sidmouth One Day museum workshops hosted by Sidmouth School of Art were asked to mimic the sounds of a telephone. These recordings were compiled into a continuous loop that plays discreetly in each telephone box to catch the ears of passers by.
The work is both a romantic recollection of something once familiar and a collective portrait of a group of local people.
In addition to their vocal contribution, the participants were asked to write the words ‘ring ring’ and ‘beep beep in their usual handwriting - their words are reproduced on posters hung in the telephone boxes.
