Modified binaural recordings of residential exhaust fans. Primary presentation of hyperacusis.
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I hear the door shut.
Tuesday, November 17
That is written on a Post-it® stuck to——
PAY ATTENTION.
THAT is written/scrawled on a Post-it stuck on top of Tuesday, Nov——
It’s circled this time. I think that’s new. And it’s nightttime. I think. So I don’t move. I don’t——
Inhale.
The sun is in my eye/s and my feet are cold/er. I’m standing still. November 17. The date is meaningless. It’s on the door. I’m not sure if it’s something that’s already happened or about to. My hand my hand is on the refrigerator door. Fridge. Refrigerator. I can’t,,, actually,,, remember doing anything else. Is it cold? Am I——
Dusk. Pretty sure.
Suddenly this is in my head: “It's not specific to appliances/// freezers. These are the things I/we have to cope with. We'd done our best to try to get through this situation, but we've not been able to.”
So.
I have socks on and we are coping. Who is we I wonder. I’ve been here before. Standing here. Connected to all the other times I’ve opened. Closed. the fridge/refrigerator door. There’s a band/some guy named Allen Callaci ; Ok, Not Today——
Has it been like that the whole time? The sound. I turn to——
Ah. I see how it works. Now what.
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W.C. Wood Company was founded in 1930 as a manufacturer of electrical farm equipment and was a family-owned business until liquidation in 2010. Their first products were grain grinders, oat rollers, and electric fencers. In the mid-1930s, the W.C. Wood Company purchased a company that manufactured milking machines and, in 1938, their first refrigeration product: a milk cooler.
In July 2006, W.C. Wood announced the closure of Plant 2 because of the "cost of manufacturing in Canada and excess capacity in other facilities." A press release indicated that W.C. Wood Company had moved manufacturing to a W.C. Wood plant in Ottawa, OH, and to an unnamed partner in "Asia." The names of the ~200 employees affected by the plant closure appear at 8:13.
W.C. Wood Company was sold to Red Diamond Capital, whose parent company Mitsubishi Corp. was well-positioned to survive the 2008 Financial Crisis. A second sale to One Rock Capital Partners (also owned by Mitsubishi Corp.) fell through. One Rock Capital Partners' assets now total $1.42 billion dollars (2019), yet they failed to come up with $500,000 by the purchase deadline.
Effective Tuesday, November 17, 2009, warranty or service coverage on any W.C. Wood products was terminated. All employees, except for select financial personnel, were dismissed. ~800 people lost their jobs in Ottawa, OH, and Guelph, ON. The company said in a US statement, it will not be able to pay any severance packages.
Previous owner John Wood later served as chairman of the board for Danby Appliances Inc. and Danby Appliances Ltd. (a competing appliance company) and founded the W.C. Wood Foundation, whose “other purposes beneficial to the community” mandate netted donations totaling $16,553,334 in 2017.