By Elizabeth Fitzpatrick
Features Editor
Students passing through the first floor of Hodson Hall during March may have noticed a retro black phone installed on a round wooden table next to the couches. When taken off the hook, the phone plays a randomized feminist message.
The “Femme Fone” was created by Electronic Resources Librarian Cori Lynn Arnold, who was inspired after visiting the “Dial-a-Poem” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
According to the MoMA website, poet and performance artist John Giorno created a free telephone hotline where people could call and hear a poem, because he believed “much poetry is intended to be heard, not merely read.”
After visiting the exhibit with her husband, where a room of phones played a variety of poems, Arnold wanted to try to recreate something similar in just one phone. She enjoys learning new things and the process of experimentation.
Arnold obtained an old phone from her father-in-law’s garage, gutted it, and spent a week over winter break with her husband figuring out how to get the phone to play randomized messages.
“To me, the tech is fun and it was really fun to do it with my husband because he kind of knows bits, not all of it,” Arnold said. “He would get frustrated with something and I would figure it out, and I would get frustrated with something and he would figure it out. It was fun to do that together.”
Inside the phone, they installed a tiny computer called a raspberry pie, which stores the messages, and an ATC, which converts the digital messages into analog Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). The ATC also controls the randomization of which message plays.
With 25 messages, there is a lot of variety in what a listener could potentially hear, from internet memes to quotes by significant historical women. Arnold began collecting inspirational feminist messages in a notebook after the 2024 election.
Arnold’s favorite message on the phone is a two-minute long compilation she created.
“There’s one in there that’s a bunch of my friends that I asked them to say ‘fuck the patriarchy,’ and one of my friends is singing it and a bunch of my friends are shouting it, and it’s just a compilation of a bunch of voicemail messages of people saying that all together,” Arnold said.
Arnold had originally created the phone for RiverArts “Anything Goes” show in January because she was interested in creating kinetic art that can be interacted with. After talking with Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Tricia Biles, who was interested in the work, Arnold agreed to display the phone in Hodson during March to celebrate Women’s History Month.
According to the National Women’s History Museum, Women’s History Month honors women’s contributions to American history, a goal that is clearly aligned with the messages heard on the Femme Fone.
The first day the phone was on display in Hodson, the table was jostled, causing the internal wiring to disconnect. While initially frustrated, Arnold viewed this as a learning opportunity as well.
“There was one loose connection that was driving me crazy, but we got it done,” Arnold said. “Now I know what’s wrong, and I have a screwdriver and I know how to fix it for next time. There’s zip ties in there to make sure it doesn’t get jostled again.”
She also hopes to take what she’s learned from the construction of the Femme Fone in order to improve sound quality and make the process more efficient in the future.
While the Femme Fone is now off-display due to the end of Women’s History Month, Arnold has many plans for the new projects, whether that be more dial-a-poem style phones or turning her feminist message collection into patches on a denim jacket. She also invites students to visit the phone in her office, where it will live after the display in Hodson is over.
Photo Caption: Electronic Resources Librarian Cori Lynn Arnold’s art installation Femme Fone was in Hodson Hall for Women’s History Month.
Photo by Ella Humphreys