ABOUT TXT ME

Filmed with a cellphone, we sneak a peek into the making of TXT ME, a stage production about how cellphones have changed the world we live in today. Originally performed at the Fringe Festival of the 2006 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, new life has been breathed into the characters of TXT ME by means of a short "doccie" style film. "TXT ME: A reading … filmed with cellphone camera" is a work of cultural activism that takes seriously Melvin Kranzberg's insight: "Technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral." TXT ME tells the story of a cellphone romance during a conference about mobile phones. It also makes the connection between the ongoing war in Democratic Republic of the Congo and the mining of coltan, a mineral used in the manufacturing of cellphones. It poses questions about the human and environmental costs of using a cellphone. TXT ME is a story about the continued underdevelopment of Africa during the Information Age.