Paper Tape — A Cassette Tape without Prior Acoustic Information

kazuhiro jo

Image credit: kazuhiro jo

• oral
• Paper PDF link
• Presence: in person
• Duration: 13
• Type: medium
• Session: NIME's Historical Objects

Abstract:

This paper presents Paper Tape, a cassette tape without prior acoustic information. The work consists of a circular loop of pa- per printed with magnetic ink via digital silkscreen printing and housed in a standard cassette shell. Situating the work within the technical and artistic lineage of magnetic recording and sound generation from visual patterns, the paper repositions the cas- sette tape player as an instrument for sound generation without recordings. Through analysis of five tapes presented in the ex- hibition Maybe It’s Music, it proposes a minimal yet concrete rereading of the history of magnetic sound media.