May I offer two considerations:

First, I have observed quite frequently that people who very likely would
refrain from what David Haberstich calls "inappropriate in-person
conversation" become apparently completely oblivious to their environment
once they receive a call on their cellphone. I assume that this is so
because the fact of receiving a phone call when you're not in your office
or at home 'automatically' provides you with an aura of importance, of
someone whose affairs are of pressing urgence. How could you dare asking
such a person to lose precious minutes by leaving the museum premises?  ;-)

Second, I personally find cellphones a nuisance not only because of all the
conversations you are made to overhear, but also because of all the
unpleasant beeps and noises they produce to call our attention. (I have
recently acquired a cellphone myself, after a long period of reluctance,
and not one of the different beeps and melodies it offers sounds tolerable
to my ears!)

I can only hope that the next generation of cellular phones will be
environment-sensitive and museum-friendly. Imagine your cellphone would
alert you with a little Mozart rondo while you're looking at baroque
painting, but signal the next call by playing a Velvet Underground riff
(you have walked over to the Warhols and Lichtensteins, meanwhile), or a
few beats of a Gerry Mulligan solo (this time, it's the gallery with
abstract painting from the 50s). Now here's a challenge for the electronics
and telecomm engineers ;-)

Beep Beep Beeeeeep Beep Beep ...
Martin

At 18:34 27.03.2000 EST, you wrote:

[...]
>I'm often amused by how ubiquitous cell phones have become, but in my
>personal experience they have seldom represented an annoyance any more
>serious than inappropriate in-person conversation.  Talking in a theater or
>meeting in person or by phone is disruptive and rude, and should be dealt
>with appropriately--and allowing incoming calls in such situations is
>especially rude and a flagrant violation of manners and taste.  In most
>museum situations, where people can and do converse normally, phones
>shouldn't annoy anyone, unless the user is part of a tour group which is
>already straining to hear a docent or guide above the other ambient noise.
>If I were giving a gallery talk and became aware that someone in my audience
>was using a phone, I would politely ask him or her to fall out of the group
>and rejoin us when the call was finished.
>
>David Haberstich



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Martin Taureg
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