The Animals Were Never Alone
a Choose Your Own Adventure Essay
by Maria Lepistö and the Animal Sound Society
A decade after Günter Tembrock founded the Animal Sound Archive in Berlin, Andy Warhol founded his Factory in New York. Like Günter, Andy also carried around a tape recorder and likewise, it developed into a intimate relationship, later scrutinized by Gustavus Stadler, author of “MY WIFE”: THE TAPE RECORDER AND WARHOL’S QUEER WAYS OF LISTENING.

The essay focuses on the vital period of 1963-1967, when Andy redirected his artistic practice from painting to sound, to listening. As the title of the essay suggests, Andy declared himself married to his recorder.

Olivia Liang, author of The Lonely City, portrays Andy Warhol as an artist with social anxiety, constantly surrounded by the people in his Factory, yet utterly lonely.

With a recorder as a buffer, he did not have to engage in communication with what he was listening to. The recorder allowed him to be surrounded by people and at the same time, it prevented connection. According to himself, it killed his emotional life. His whole career was an attempt for self erasure. As a pioneer in the genre of POP art, Warhol is known for copying, multiplying and reproducing material through automated methods that leaves no trace of himself.

If you want to find a photo of Andy Warhol on the internet, go to 18

If you want to get acquainted with his recorder, go to 14

Welcome! introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154