An ophone is a loudspeaker with an attached telephone receiver, allowing visitors to record sounds that are replayed infinitely until replaced by other sounds. The installation provides a space for playful collaboration where the visitors themselves become composers, instrumentalists and listeners at the same time. The ophones foster everything from subtle interference etudes to collaborative chanting, semi-automated social commentary to dense polyrhytmic drone parties.Unsworn is Erik Sandelin and Magnus Torstensson, who are, in addition to ophone designers and manufacturers, an art and design duo based in Malmö, Sweden.The Four Ophones have been exhibited in Linz, Helsinki, Paris and at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo. The New York tour is supported by IASPIS and coordinated by Brooklyn-based curator Elna Svenle. On November 21, 2006, the American Ophoniste Idol will be crowned at MonkeyTown in Williamsburg, as Unsworn joins local noisemakers, para-symphonic alarmists and loopaholics to battle it out in live juried competition.For information about American Ophoniste Idol: www.monkeytownhq.comFor more information about Unsworn and the complete New York program: www.unsworn.orgImage: Ophone, courtesy of unsworn.org