STUMP SPEECH is a talking tree stump of dead media.
The stump lives at Elsewhere, a living museum and collaboratory in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was made during a July 2011 residency using books, magazines, records, sheet music, crafting manuals and other media objects from Elsewhere's collection.
To talk to the stump, text "@stump [your question]" to 898932, replacing "[your question]" with, of course, your question.
After parsing your question, the stump will respond (via text message) with a string -- 140-characters-or-less nugget of wisdom -- culled from the collection books used to make the stump.
Texting the stump does not cost anything over and above what your service provider usually charges you for sending and receiving a text. Note: you may see an ad for Txtweb.com or other services at the end of your message.
The stump was made almost entirely from media materials in Elsewhere's collection. No collection materials were cut or damaged. The stump could easily be disassembled so that these materials could be used in another project.
Any materials on the stump that have been cut or taped are non-collection and were salvaged from trash or recycling.
STUMP SPEECH was conceived and implemented in July 2011 by Whitney Anne Trettien and Nick Bruns, with the generous support of the awesome folks at the Elsewhere Collaborative.