CO-OPt Voice is a platform for spoken art curated by CO-OPt member Heather Warren-Crow. Using a voicemail-only business telephone service that provides a phone number with a local Lubbock area code, CO-OPt Voice appropriates the outgoing message as a lo-fi format for art focusing exclusively on the voice. All pieces are recorded in a white-knuckle uninterrupted take through the service’s “Record a Greeting” function. The sound quality is merely adequate. Listeners can choose to leave a message, as with all voicemail. CO-OPt Voice embodies Warren-Crow’s interest in orality in the age of the Internet, which prioritizes writing, albeit writing that has taken on qualities of spoken conversation. As a service intended for small businesses, the Local Voicemail Office gives us an opportunity to think through communicative capitalism using the tightly constrained and almost quaint performance of recording a voicemail greeting.

Artists interested in participating by writing a text that can be read in 1-2 minutes by a single person can contact CO-OPt at co.opt.lbk@gmail.com. Call (806) 319-9150 to listen to our current offering.

CURRENT WORK                                       Pedro Vélez, From Enthused to Obtuse (2023), Piano by Ernesto Busigó

March-May 2023                                      Ian Breidenbach, You’ve Reached Dystopia (2023)

January-February 2023                          Heather Warren-Crow, Starry Pollsters (2021)