Audio Cassettes

2013
Rerecorded audio cassette
50 minutes of original soundscape material.
Plastic, Acrylic Paint.

Every year new technology renders what would otherwise be perfectly suitable media antiquated. New read and write devices will cease to be utilized yet their production of economic and social ramifications remain. Left either discarded in favor of more seemingly efficient advances or more portable compressed storage. While Cds usurped tapes in the early 1990s, both Compact disc and the Audio Cassette have become relics in the wake of digital file sharing and the mp3. However, a crucial tactile element and experiential avenue has been lost. Simultaneously, the lines of digital property have certainly blurred with no physical objects to use as a metric. Nostalgia for the audiotape like that of vinyl is also nostalgia for the local music store. A picture of a mothers embrace is not a substitute for a mother’s embrace we live in a physical world. To purchase is to support. Ownership professes investment. Much as the digital camera has offered accessibility and eased the barriers for entry into photography, the medium itself has seen a decline in the resiliency and longevity of its creators. The means has been democratized but the messages have become fugacious.