We all have cell phones these days, right? And we use them for tons of different things. We talk on them, we text on them, we chat on them, we email through them, we update our social networking sites on them and play games on them and take photographs with them and … well, you get the picture. Mobile phones are amazing and we have all gotten used to using them for many different things. But are you really thinking outside of the box when it comes to the use of your mobile phones?

You see, most of us consider the cell phone to be a functional product designed solely to do all of those things that have been mentioned above. But there are some people who realize that the mobile phone is useful as a piece of artwork. Mobile phone art includes many different methods of using the cell phone as part of a creative project. It involves interactive performance art exhibits using cell phone ring tones to make symphonies. It involves the recycling of mobile phones into structural pieces of art. And it involves simply using the mobile phone as the subject of paintings and drawings in order to make a statement about the impact that cell phones have had on our society.

There are dozens of different mobile phone artists out there who are creating some really cool art work that most people don’t know about. Maybe we can all start to see our cell phones just a little bit differently by taking a look at some of the amazing work that they are doing. Here’s a glimpse into seven different amazing art projects that were centered around mobile phones:

This artist is by far and away my favorite mobile phone artist. This is partially because he is the only artist that I know of who has really devoted a large chunk of his artistic career to developing art with mobile phones. It is also because he is truly a green artist in the sense that his art recycles and repurposes old mobile phones that would otherwise be going to the landfill. (Well, hopefully not to the landfill since hopefully people know that you’re supposed to recycle mobile phones, but you get my drift …) But besides just being devoted to the art and to the art of being green, Rob Pettit is a great mobile phone artist because the pieces that he creates using mobile phones are just so visually stunning. I really love the physical sculptural pieces that use actual phones (like the one shown in the picture here) but he also does have some neat related artwork such as ink drawings where he draws little cell phones that turn into a bigger picture. Take a look at one over at his Etsy store.

This was a sculpture that was entered into a multi-artist exhibit in London last year. The exhibit was all about Mahatma Ghandi and the work there represented different beliefs about the man. This piece, which is a red sculpture showing Ghandi holding a cell phone, was said to represent the changes that have taken place in India since Ghandi’s time. In a way, it is a humorous piece but I also think that it says a lot about the importance of mobile phones in developing countries today which makes it a really powerful piece on a serious level.

There are a few different interactive mobile phone performance art pieces that I am aware of but this is by far the coolest of the bunch. Basically, when you come to see this show you (and your cell phone) actually become a part of the show. You register the phone number of your cell phone so that it gets linked with your seat. Then the show starts and it involves the ringing of your cell phone with new ringtones that have been added to it to make it more musical. Your phone and the phones around you are all ringing as part of this amazingly beautiful musical piece. It’s music but it’s made using mobile phones. It happened way back in 2001 but I still think it's a magical piece to remember today.

Joe McKay is another artist who has done a lot of work with mobile phones. In my opinion, the difference between his work and the work of someone like Rob Pettit (mentioned above) is that McKay’s work really has a technological edge to it which seems totally fitting for art based on cell phones. In this case, he has taken a phone that was ruined when a dog chewed on it and hooked it up to a rotating platform where it offers up an artistic eerie glow from its damaged screen.

This artist actually uses the mobile phone to create art by taking different models of cell phones and using the video recorder on them to record different scenes in movement whenever she is on buses or trains or in the car. These videos are then combined together to make cell phone movies of the subjects that she has taken video footage of. Learn more here.

This is another one of those interactive art pieces that utilizes mobile phones. In this case, the Phonetic Faces exhibit is set up (it’s been in various galleries around the world) and people at the exhibit can come add to the piece. They do so by calling a specific cell phone number which tells them how to choose images to collage together as part of the piece and then also allows them to upload their own picture for use in the collage. Essentially, this captures the visitors to the exhibit in images but also alters the piece through their contributions. That’s public art at its best and it has the cell phone at its core.

This is an artist with an interesting project that takes mobile phone art out into the streets. He makes concrete sculptures of mobile phones (and other types of technology like TV remotes) and then he places them throughout cities to be discovered and adored by people wandering through life. I can imagine that seeing one would make you think different about mobile phones in society if only for a brief while.