Motivated by a desperate yearning for the expression of music, I began teaching myself to build and code  machines in recognition of my own limitations in playing instruments or singing. The sculptures serve as a bridge between my longing for musical proficiency and the emotive power inherent in the folk tradition. In this work, I am specifically interested in recreating folk songs in the American tradition so old that they have no author credited, suggesting a collective, collaborative human inheritance. These early songs have evolved over generations as tools of expressions necessitated by love, oppression, liberation, labor, and faith. The machines have become their own innovations of expression, and vessels for these ancient songs. Like a folk song, and like a vine or a living being, the machines will also slowly atrophy and change over time as they are played.