Lyre is an investigation of an interior. I opened the toy, turned it on, and pressed a licked finger to various points on the circuit board until chiming "Pop Goes the Weasel" sounded suddenly like chipmunks. With help from Nick Collins' text, Handmade Electronic Instruments and Reed Ghazala's Circuit Bending, I substituted a clock resistor with a 1M potentiometer between R2 and R3, the two points I'd touched simultaneously with my fingertip, causing the sound to bend and squeal.

The idea, simply, is to open—to allow you to alter the pitch/speed of the toy's programmed voice—to reveal a broader range of sonic possibility and emotional resonance.

Thank you Guillermo Galindo, Miranda Mellis, Lisa Robertson, and Grace Kim.