Dan, this discussion is slowly making me come around to your way of thinking, at least when the artist can be trusted to look for that balance you describe.

I remember well the Psycho Girlfriend tapes and how they revealed, perhaps, more about the man who made them public than the crazed, desperate woman. It's an excellent example of the sort of abuse I was thinking of in the tapes you described. But I see your point now. How much of art is, after all, balance. But in an art world of cut-up cows jars of urine, art doesn't look all that balanced all the time!

This has been an interesting discussion!

Pat, I guess I just don't think tape-based answering machines are as mystifying to the general populace as you seem to think.

I would assume you're against the concept of found art in general, right? Sites like Found magazine take notes, receipts, snippets of audio, and other bits of cultural flotsam and post them to the web. I'm a strong believer in personal privacy,too, but I also think art is where you find it. The most compelling bits of insight into ourselves aren't often found in galleries.

I also think you're ignoring the possibility that a balance can be struck between information that's personal but essentially anonymous, and information which is personal and specific. There's a difference between posting a note you found at the laundromat and posting someone's Social Security # and address with it.

For what it's worth, I don't think it's a bad thing that thrift stores are trying to be more conscientious about their donors' privacy, but I do miss the bits of found art I'd discover there.

Dan, did you ever feel you were unfairly violating these peoples' privacy by using their voices this way?

The thrift stores 'wised up' in that they protected those who had given something to charity without realizing that they were giving up their personal information.

Next time I have an old answering machine to give away, I'll take a hammer to it instead.