Advice from a Former Student

Advice From a Former Student was selected and commissioned by The Public Art Committee at Brown University, responsible for bringing works of art to campus for display in public spaces.

The work was installed at the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center at Faunce House between 2010 and 2025. It features many voices of alumni, from class years ranging from 1939 until 2010, who each offer short pieces of advice on any topic they choose. There are over 800 pieces of advice (totaling more than seven hours of audio) in the piece, which shuffles and plays the pieces of advice randomly. The audio was played out of a speaker installed behind a wall that a listener would need to get close to in order to hear, a little like an oracle that was always present there for anyone who needed to consult it.

There are conversations underway to move the sound archive online, where it could continue to play in a randomized manner, for anyone who would occasionally like to seek out advice.