Reinventing the Phonograph

I will build a phonograph from scratch using Thomas Edison's original, semi-legible notes my only guide. Reproductions of these handwritten notes are available online through The Edison Papers of Rutgers University. The beginning stage of this project was sponsored in part by the Dispatx Art Collective.

I will concern myself with what defines this object’s presence – how to manually engineer a device that records and reproduces sound – and also with what defines its current absence – the specter and influence of its inventor, its technological development, and its fall into supposed obsolescence.

Functional success is not my sole objective, however. I will produce a series of models that will likely vary in aesthetics and functionality. Documentation of these drafts made along the way will be included in the project’s final form: a book of photographs, drawing and collage, an essay by Lillian Mooney, and a CD with video and audio recordings, .