Artist Invents Prank Call Synthesiser

Prankophone combines a synthesiser and telephone system to play call recipients melodies generated from their phone numbers

::vtol:: prankophone from ::vtol:: on Vimeo.

The Prankophone is a hybrid synthesiser and telephone system that does exactly as its name suggests.

As Electronic Beats reports, the machine created by Russian artist Dmitry Morozov can call recipients and play them melodies generated from algorithms created from their phone numbers. The Prankophone can be set to manual, anonymous, keyboard and live modes to call any number of random or planned recipients.

“Nowadays it’s averting to hear in the phone receiver any sound other than human voice,” Morozov says. “Music means that we have to wait for the answer of the operator; strange electronic noises imply some mistake in decoding. Thus the sound from Prankophone would be perceived as some kind of mistake, though in reality it is an individual and anonymous sound message, a micro-noise piece which is unique for each number it managed to reach.” You can find out more about the device in the video above.

The Quietus Digest

Sign up for our free Friday email newsletter.

Support The Quietus

Our journalism is funded by our readers. Become a subscriber today to help champion our writing, plus enjoy bonus essays, podcasts, playlists and music downloads.

Support & Subscribe Today