Two weeks before I attended the inaugural Open Studios Residency at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, I read that the pay phone that had existed there long before I first visited the school in 2002 was to be removed by the telephone company that owned it. For years, the pay phone served as the only reliable way for visiting artists and students to communicate with the outside world. In response, I purchased a retired pay phone, replaced its internals with my own electronic hardware and software, and installed it in the location where the previous phone resided. The new pay phone functions as a hub for communication among visitors to Haystack. Users of the phone are prompted to choose to leave a voice message or hear a previously recorded message from someone else. The messages are left on a variety of personal themes – each selected by pushing specific buttons on the keypad – from a story about a prank gone wrong to a favorite birthday memory.
