Paul de Jong was deeply engaged in the task of digitizing a 1981 reading of Bible scriptures on cassette titled "Doug Wead Narrates the Promises" during a drizzly November afternoon. His studio in North Adams, Mass., had the darkening Berkshire Mountains looming outside. As he listened intently, Wead's somniferous voice intoned, "Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue." De Jong adjusted the volume while peering through his octagonal-framed glasses and wore a cap with "people" embroidered on it. The "scourge of the tongue" was precisely what he was seeking.

The Work of a Dutch American Artist

De Jong, now 60 years old, is a renowned Dutch American artist. He is best known as a member of the collage-pop duo the Books along with Nick Zammuto. Although the band disbanded in 2012, de Jong continues to create collage music under his own name. The raw materials for his work fill the main room of his high-ceilinged studio. The walls are lined with towering shelves filled with vinyl, cassettes, and VHS tapes, which, as he puts it, make up "the fringes of the world of media."

Discovering a Treasure Trove of Media

Among the VHS tapes, one can find "Brake Repair for Ford Tractors," "America's Best Model Trains," and "Institutional Investor Ranked Analysts Top Stock Picks for 2000." In the vinyl section, there are "Simplified Russian Grammar," "A Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern and Central North America," and "Tuning Your Autoharp." De Jong calls the obscurities he collects the Mall of Found – a library of low-budget, homespun, and dated pieces of spoken-word media. He samples these clips and pairs them with live studio instruments that are bowed, strummed, plucked, and percussed.

Uncovering Unconscious Humanity

Sometimes, de Jong buys used answering machines just for the long-forgotten tapes inside. He finds fascination in the gaping difference between how people seem to feel about themselves and how they actually look to others. He doesn't own a Ford tractor or have plans to brush up on his Russian grammar. Instead, it is the unconscious humanity revealed by the voices on these outmoded relics – their timbre, hesitations, and pauses – that attracts him. As he explained, it is their vulnerabilities and the "pure human elements" that hold his attention.