After researching Laurie Anderson and Brian Dettmer, I got the idea to melt the cassettes, like Brian Dettmer did, into an instrument and use an old Walkman cassette player tape head like Laurie Anderson did, but inside of my cassette instrument. I thought of a cello made of melted cassettes and there would be a spot for the cassette player so that it could be played like a cello. I liked the parallel between the cello and the cassettes; how music has evolved. At one point people could only hear music if they went to where someone was playing and cassette tapes used to be how people listened to music. This gave me the idea of “the evolution of how we listen to music” and to incorporate more than just the cello and the cassette tapes. I made a list of the methods of listening to music throughout history. I came up with: cello (physically being where ever the instrument was), records, cassette tapes, and C.D.’s. But then I realized that C.D.’s are not the popular way of listening to music anymore. So many people have MP3 players, iPods, and now with YouTube, you can listen to music on almost any device that connects to the internet (I am listening to music on YouTube right now). So how do I represent a listening method that is digital. I found one thing that is commonly used with all the devices… ear buds! Then I had the difficult task of combining all of these things into one sculpture. I thought of making an ear bud out of the cassettes but making it the size of a cello and have it played upside-down so that it resembles a cello.
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So I drew a sketch of the ear bud Then I looked up an image and measurements for a cello.
… … I decided to do a 1/2 size cello which would equal 107cm tall.
Ear Bud Sketch
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Then I drew an outline on the floor in chalk to the scale that I wanted it to be and figured out the measurements for each part.
To Scale Sketch of “Cello Ear Bud”
Sketch with measuring tape
I’m a very visual person so I had to draw it to scale how I wanted it to be shaped and then measure the other parts. The height was the only measurement that was given to me.
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Then I copied the measurements onto my sketch and decided what parts of my sculpture were going to be made up of which material.
Ear bud with measurements and materials
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The main body would be made up of melted cassettes, the silicone part that goes in the ear would be made up of melted C.D.’s, the black speaker where the sound comes out would be a record and the cord would be the analog tape coiled around a tube. A cello would be incorporated by the size and the way it is played.
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After I figured out the measurements for everything based off of the height of 107cm, I realized I probably would not have enough cassette tapes so I reduced all the measurements to 75%.
75% scale measurements
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