KELLI ANDERSON _ 2023 _ PORTFOLIO
6
Paper Record Player
I created this project for my friends and music fans Mike (a sound engineer) and Karen (an open-source lawyer who djs) to celebrate their wedding. Readers are instructed how to use this clear, flexi disc record through a foil-stamped likeness of a couple, which—when turned—reveals four stages of their future life together. When readers start turning the record, they are then directed to drop the needle—which transforms the card into a manually spun paper record player. This is not something that paper is supposed to do.
This object, though intended for an audience of around a hundred people, went viral (I was invited to give a TED talk and go on the Today Show) and convinced me of the continued place of lo-fi magic in our world. When high-tech operations become hand-operated, they connect us to material truths at a deep sensory level. Awkward, gargling, glitchy: lo-tech provides a window that frames our fundamental lack of control, opening us up to awe. When an experience violates our understanding of the world, it forces us to recalibrate our mental constructs of reality. This experiment revealed (much to my prolonged fascination) that—in our highly-controllable digital existence— disruptive wonder is a spiritual balm. It seems to be something for which we all yearn. A trade version of this experiment is planned for 2024.
