Shawn Borri, is dedicated to education, pertaining to the history of acoustic  sound recording.  We provide a hands on approach to learning.  We not only record cylinders, but build the acoustic recorders we use, make our own wax cylinder masters. Our lectures comprise of live wax cylinder recording, a slide show of historical photographs, which provide a detailed look at the early recording studios, artists, and manufacturing techniques, as well as the legal battles of the early  days of sound recording.  We also demonstrate how sound recording has changed from Tinfoil-Digital.
 
On October 21st we provided a very informative, and delightful presentation at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.  We provided a slide show, playing of historical sound recordings,  and wax cylinder recording session.  Many thank to DR. Mark Rubel, and the music recording staff of Milikin for providing us this opportunity.   We recorded   Mr. Catfish, featuring  vocal, with Dobro guitar, it was really fun!  Modern Jam rock band "The Infinity Room", comprised of 18 and 19 year old students playing Bass guitar, Lead guitar, drums, and Thurman style key board.  The full rock band came though well, the acoustic process recorded everything, from the bass drum and bass guitar, to the high hats! The vocals you could swear were recorded electrically, but they were not!  We discussed the founding  By-law Compact of The North American Phonograph Co., and even had a TV interview for the local station. 
 
 "Of the more than 6,500 languages currently being spoken, in the world, fewer than half are likely to survive the next century. Conservatorio de Lenguas Muertas (Dead Languages Conservatory) is a project that explores the quick disappearance of dying languages, which function as symbols of the memory of different languages. The project creates a symbolic museum of phonograph recordings of songs and texts of languages in extinction. Wax cylinder recording, invented by Thomas Edison in the 1870s as the first method of recording is in itself an almost extinct way of recording.
Exhibited at the San Juan Poli-Graphic Triennial (2004), Julia Friedman Gallery, New York (2005), The Only Book, Center for Book Arts (2006), Cart(ajena), Cartagena, Colombia (2007),  and Die Lucky Bush at the MUKHA, Antwerp (2008) amongst many others." A very recent project with Pablo  preserved the voice of Chief,Jones, Marie Smith: Last fluent speaker of Eyak  onto wax cylinder, and digital as well, so that Her voice and native toung will not be lost.

Educational lectures, our prices are variable within logical means.   Most run about $100.00 per hour, we do not charge for the set up time,  only for  the recording and lecture time and $13.00 for each wax master we use . If the lectures are out of the state of Illinois, hotel, travel expenses must be added, and this includes hotel, and travel expenses.