Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Medienwissenschaft

This paper considers what it might mean to center tape and tape recording in historical, ethnographic, and theoretical work on sound recording. I focus on a set of practices with tape that resist the tropes of inscription and verisimilitude that are often presumed or celebrated in the context of phonographic knowledge. Creative labor—splicing, erasing/rewinding, and dubbing—positions the materiality of tape in contact with music makers, sound recordists, and, ultimately, consumer-listeners. By grounding my analysis in specific case studies from the history of field recording, sound art, and the technological everyday (mixtapes), I open a conversation about musical creativity and medium-specific affordances.