Amanuensis, 2021

Found lamp, audio-responsive light bulb, projection, voice recordings

Amanuensis is an installation composed of audio recorded and stored by Amazon Alexa over two months of my grandmother’s battle with dementia. The word amanuensis refers to an assistant tasked with dictation. Beyond acting as a record of the fading of my grandma’s memory, the recordings capture an evolving relationship between my grandma and the disembodied “Alexa.”

Created just months before my grandma’s death, this piece exists in memory of the pasionate and forceful woman she was throughout her life– active in the Unitarian Universalist Church, the League of Women Voters, anti-war, women's rights, racial justice, amongst other liberal causes.