Voicemails from hundreds of strangers answering a secret question

Olga sez, "On Thanksgiving, I got chosen by the Listserve (the email lottery!) to send an email to 21,632 people. I decided to ask them to call a Google Voicemail number, and answer the secret question I left on the answering message. The result is hundreds of strangers leaving me poignant, funny, and often heart-breaking audio recordings of their memories. It's like peeking into someone's closet, full of an infinite number of secret stories. (The phone number is still working. You can call it to leave your memories here: 1.415.857.0589.)"

This Is A Memory Of (Thanks, Olga)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: art • telephony • web theory

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eric kam

that is better than the luck I had with my Daughters Google voice account. Somehow her number was being promoted as the “call to complain” number for the 2012 Republican Primary Campaign.
http://tech-ho.blogspot.com/2012/02/robocall-voicemail-log.html
Like your results better
gellfex

This was pioneered by a music producer named Steve Stein in the 80′s on a “telephone based radio show” he called “Ralphies Bop City”. He used a tape voicemail machine and asked a question, and then would edit the responses, put them on the “outgoing” message with the next question. It was often brilliant. He’s archived some on his site

His explanation http://www.steinski.com/blog/ralphies_bop_city_pt_1/

great question: The holidays are here, and it’s family time, so please tell us about your weirdest relatives. http://www.steinski.com/blog/ralphies_bop_city_pt_5/
http://www.facebook.com/maxhawkins Max Hawkins

Great project! I think the telephone is the most intimate medium out there—listening to these recordings is like hearing a secret from a friend.

It reminds me of the work of Joe Frank, who was on public radio for a number of years. His show The Other Side consists mostly of telephone conversations with friends cut with philosophical, often absurd monologues. The result is intimate and haunting:

http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/jf/jf101107karma_3