The artistic community can often be the source of inspiration for the mainstream. So a new exhibition, Art Mobs, could be giving us a glimpse of the future and how we can interact with our mobiles with the world around us.

Art Mobs is produced in conjunction with the Yellow Arrow project, which I've written about before and in a wider context at Net Imperative.

The event features the work of art students at Marymount Manhattan College and attendees can leave virtual comments about pieces they see via sms. Subsequent visitors can view the last five comments by sms too.

People can also download Podcasts of interviews with exhibitors to hear on their iPods.

There's a video here.

What I really like about this is that it turns the passive visitor into the active participant. This is important as if you're forced to say or write what you think about something, you're going to get much more out of it.

For a more traditional way of achieving a similar thing, next time you visit an exhibition, choose your favourite piece and "present" a short critique of it to a companion. You'll find you both get much more from it than passive consumption.

Actually, this is one of the reasons why I blog. It makes me think about things far more deeply than if I just read them alone.

Story spotted on the ever-stimulating SmartMobs. Keep up the great work Howard and co.