2026
Medium: Vintage Western Electric 2500DMG desk phone (1984), Raspberry Pi, ringing generator, ElevenLabs voice synthesis, custom electronics, wooden pedestal
Dimensions: 9.00" × 5.00" × 8.00"
Price: Price on Request
Description: After my dad died, I started writing letters to him in the memorial book we bought for his celebration of life. They were just little memories... snippets of details that have gone fuzzy. The paper route at 5 am. The steak and grilled onions. The Star Wars mural that never got finished. It was a way for me to remember, but also a way for me to communicate with him. For a couple of years, I had a reminder on my phone’s calendar for every Sunday afternoon... Call dad. I wasn't always good at making that call. In the last year of his life, when he was wheelchair-bound and his world had gotten very small, I tried to call every day. Not because I always had something to say. In fact, we would often talk about the same things because his memory was fading. But the real reason for calling was because I knew how easy it would be for him to feel disconnected from everything and everyone around him. This piece uses a vintage 1984 Western Electric desk phone. I remember we had this phone when I was a teenager. A visitor approaches, and it rings. The ring is so jarring with its insistence for being answered. The visitor lifts the handset and hears a voicemail being left... mid-sentence... a father calling his child, not knowing anyone is there. He's remembering something they did together. A broken window. A bike crash. His pet chihuahua, Charlie.
