tape less tape





I was handed a cassette tape by a family member while on a walk through Daubeney Fields after it was found in churned earth, in all likelihood turned up during the recent groundworks in the park. The cassette tape is in a terminal condition - its front and back cracked, all of its innards unspooled. A plastic shell good for little more than landfill or incineration. How can the life of this object be extended? How can it be used one last time? I put it in the cassette player on my desk, set up a microphone and pressed play. The cassette player was not happy with this tape-less-tape but with some cajoling it started to produce some sounds - clicks and scratchy noises as the player struggled to process the tape-less-tape within it. Taking what was recording, chopping, processing and reassembling it to produce a sound work which for a fleeting six and a bit minutes breathes new life into this discarded object.