Pocket Gamelan: swinging phones and ad hoc standards

In this paper, we discuss how mobile phones have been used as devices for active music making, how mobility affects sound and how communication between phones has been integrated into the fabric of a new genre of interactive performance by groups of musicians. We identify some of the issues that stood in the way of developing two new musical applications for mobile phones, discuss aspects of performance works developed so far using this technology and point the way to future development.