LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.-Arena art gallery is ringing the changes next week with a new exhibition on mobile phone technology. Eleven artists are encouraging viewers to take a closer look at mobile phones. From lo-fi to cutting-edge, the work explores not only the technology, but the personal, social, and political effects of a device now found in over 50 per cent of people's pockets.

Curator of the exhibition, Sean Hawkridge, said: "The show includes artist-made wallpapers downloadable in the gallery, re-arranged classic ring tones and the opportunity to chat via text with an artist in a hut in Sweden."

Work in the exhibition explores the mobile as a camera, giving audience members the chance to add to the images on show; other artists explore their handsets as personal treasures, lifelines and albums, and some find humour in our phones, with takes on past communication inventions and our paranoia about how it all works.

Chairman of the Liverpool Culture Company board Professor Drummond Bone said: "Mobile communications is almost like an epidemic which has gripped our lives, so sometimes it's good to take a step back and view it from a different angle."

The exhibition is running from Saturday 13 August until Saturday 3 September, with the gallery open from Wednesday to Saturday 12pm to 5pm at 82-84 Duke Street in Liverpool. Arena Gallery is part of Arena Art and Design Association, which has been based in Arena House for over twenty years and is home to over 40 artists, designers and craftspeople.