< back The Fragment Reader (25"w x 17"h x 3.5"d) The Fragment Reader is a collection of abandoned answering machine tapes found in thrift stores. The tapes have been uncoiled and stretched onto a mahogany frame, with their last, old messages still intact. Participants touch a custom-built audio-pen to the tapes and run it forwards and backwards to hear snippets of voices scheduling, gossiping and joking from the void of the forgotten past. It's not easy to eke out a meaningful phrase with the audio-pen, and the process of experimentation underscores the unlikeliness of the messages ever being heard at all. Distortion becomes part of the auditory landscape and parallels the decomposition of experience over time, leaving disjointed pieces to resurface warped and willy-nilly in the present. An intelligible phrase suddenly heard amid the confusion seems precious, and the mind involuntarily constructs a persona for the anachronistic voice. As in all resurrections of the unknown past, our mental constructions depend on chance, perseverance and the participant's own mind. Sarah Attwood Sarah Attwood is a multimedia artist and product designer living in San Diego, CA. She received a Bachelors Degree in Biology from McGill University in Quebec, and a Bachelors of Fine Art in Art & Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Attwood is committed to art which physically engages the participant, and she seeks to recast complex cultural issues in a way that is entertaining, provocative, and open-ended. Contact Information 773-551-0563 sarah@sjattwood.com sarahattwood.appliedinteractives.com/art.html Sale Information Artwork is for sale for $3000, please contact artist.