My idea for my sound sculpture has evolved from many different ideas with only one component in common. The main material that I wanted to use was cassette tapes. When I was visiting my parents in Port Stanley, my mom was sorting and getting rid of our old, no longer used cassette tapes and c.d.’s. She was going to throw them away until I told her that I was taking a sculpture class and I could probably find a use for them.
One of my first ideas was to make some type of string instrument where the tape would act as the strings and I would melt and shape the plastic for the body of the instrument. However, I was unsure if enough tension could be applied to the tape in order to be plucked or strummed to vibrate at an audible tone. I did consider using guitar strings and was still brainstorming some options.
I googled “Cassette Tape Art/ Cassette Tape Sculptures” and Brian Dettmer’s art came up. He made animal and human skeletons out of melted cassette tapes. In an interview, he said that he just melted the tapes together without using any glue. I was drawn to the way he used both the plastic cases and the analog tapes. So I started brainstorming how I could melt the tapes, reform them and what my instrument would do and sound like.
Click for Brian Dettmer’s artwork that inspired me
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When Lee came to talk to the class I approached him after and mentioned that I was planning on using cassette tapes, somehow, for my sculpture. He asked me if I knew of Laurie Anderson and I said I did not. He briefly explained some work that she has done with cassette tapes. Basically, she replaced the strings of a violin with a tape head that reads analog tapes and replace the hair on the bow with the tape from the cassettes. When the tape-bow is drawn across the tape head, whatever is on the tape is played. The sound changes depending on the speed and direction of the tape running across the tape head.
Click for examples of playing the analog tape
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