Brooks Turner

In 2003, a team of scientists discovered a black hole in the Perseus cluster that not only consumes objects inside its gravitational pull, but also emits through space a B flat tone about 50 octaves lower than the human ear can hear. This cosmic object destroys democratically while simultaneously performing a minimal symphony through space. Coincidentally, the ring back tone in the United States is comprised of two frequencies at 440 and 480, which approximates a B flat tone. I entered the names of the scientists that discovered this phenomenon into white pages and generated a list of about 30 phone numbers associated with each scientist’s name. Most of the numbers were disconnected, but I spoke to a few people and made audio recordings of our conversations, which I later transcribed and included in the book. These conversations involved speculation on life, meaning, the vastness of space, isolation, loneliness, family, failure, and art. 

These books were presented as take aways at the Ryan Education Center's Curriculum Fair at the Art Institute of Chicago, pictured below with C. Neyland.