Printmaking with/on Player Piano Rolls

A Point of No Return, 2025
Ink and Player Piano Roll

As my collection of Player Piano Rolls continues alongside my collection of CDs, I especially seek rolls that include karaoke-like sing-along text on the side. As I do not have a player piano and since many of the rolls I have are unplayable, I cannot hear the voice of these paper rolls that contain audible memory. This technological ancestor of the cassette and compact disc, the player piano was first invented in the mid-19th century as a pneumatic (air-powered) method for recording, reading, and playing music.

During this residency, thanks to Professor Brian Kreydatus, we created this etching based on my drawings of Victrola horns. Printed to corresponding text from a player piano roll from 1923 the waltz Sleep by Earl Lebeig, the combination of the image of the horns with a figure-8 knot that is stuck without clarity how it got in such a knot and no visible path to become untied. We pulled a unique print edition of ten visual poems and I look forward to continuing to explore this new direction.