I’ve got 2 large boxes completely full of old cassette tapes (remember those?) in my closet. There are probably over 400 tapes sitting there, degrading, losing their magnetic information, slowly dissolving into silence, or perhaps more correctly, white noise.
Will I ever listen to any of these again? Probably not. Heck, I don’t even own a tape player. Even if I did want to listen to any of them one day, I’m sure I’d be considerably dissapointed in the sound quality (if there was any music still on them at all), after having been spoiled with cd’s for so long.
I have no idea why I still keep them. Perhaps it’s one part nostalgia mixed with one part being a bit of a packrat and one part denial. Or maybe it’s just the fond memories of seeing cassettes completely unravelled on the side of the road – their former owners apparantly hanging them out the window to see how far they would stretch behind the car.
Well, an artist names iri5 has definitely done something useful with her tapes.
Iri5 is an artist who specializes in using non traditional media such as old books, audio cassettes, playing cards, magazines, credit cards, basically whatever he can find. She says:
It feels great to work with strange, older materials. Things that have a mind of their own. Most everything I use has been thrown away or donated at some point. Past its prime, like some of the finest things in the world.
What she’s created with some old cassette tapes and reel tapes is simply remarkable. Using these old tapes, iri5 has turned them into works of art in a series that she calls “Ghost in the Machine.” The series portrays celebrities and musicians such as Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan, Robert DiNero, Jimi Hendrix, Ian Curtis, and Jim Morrison.
Take a look:
Jimi Hendrix:

Another Jimi Hendrix:

Jim Morrison:

The “Reel” Marilyn Monroe:

Robert De Niro:

Ian Curtis:

Bob Dylan:

Incredible, aren’t they? You can find more of her work here. You should also take a look at the really creative Bose Singer ads.





28 Comments Received
March 26th, 2009 @1:36 pm
very hip very cool congrats
March 26th, 2009 @3:13 pm
WOW!
March 26th, 2009 @5:45 pm
ooooo! perdy!!
March 26th, 2009 @8:34 pm
Awesome – I wonder if they put glue down in the areas first? (That’s how I’d do it, cause I’m not visually artistic at all!)
March 27th, 2009 @6:49 am
nice!
March 27th, 2009 @10:52 am
Love it, Awesome medium
March 27th, 2009 @11:46 am
simply awesome, what a way to apply creativity to recycle in an artfull manner. Congrats. Im gonna try it myself now.
March 27th, 2009 @11:46 am
now, do the tapes actually contain the music of the musicans being depicted? that would be pretty sweet.
March 27th, 2009 @11:59 am
Totally awesome. I wonder how long these took to make.
March 27th, 2009 @12:12 pm
ian curtis=win
March 27th, 2009 @12:15 pm
Way to recycle!
March 27th, 2009 @12:53 pm
This is really cool and creative. I wonder how long it took to make one.
March 27th, 2009 @1:47 pm
I guess it needed a lot of patience and time but the results are fine.
March 27th, 2009 @11:44 pm
I love the second Jimi Hendrix. The Marilyn is pretty damn impressive too.
March 28th, 2009 @8:16 am
That is the most original thing I have seen in years..
Is it possible you will be selling original pieces in the future?
March 28th, 2009 @1:17 pm
Amazing art! Way to go. No wonder your art appears in the home page of http://www.boilingpage.com that brings the hottest pages on the web. Congrats!
March 30th, 2009 @7:17 am
let me be the first to say this: this can be done in photoshop, and you won’t have to waste any cassette tapes to do it.
March 30th, 2009 @1:19 pm
Wow, most creative thing I’ve seen in a while
March 30th, 2009 @4:07 pm
WHAT A BETTER WAY TO RECYCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 31st, 2009 @5:06 am
That’s a great idea. Someone has a lot of patience, glue and time on their hands!
April 8th, 2009 @8:05 pm
These are amazing. I especially love the Dylan one at the end. Also, this comment format is choice! Classy post; classy site! Cheers!
April 25th, 2009 @1:37 pm
i would LOVE to get ahold of cassette tapes for my car >>>>> music…..do you have a catalog or something or do i look on the web???:?? i haad a severe brain injury so im still back way back when.
thanking you in advance. phyllis
May 27th, 2009 @7:52 am
That is the coolest thing I have ever seen!! I have seen art made from cassettes, but not as detailed as this!!! Way to go!!
July 27th, 2009 @3:02 pm
I really like the ones made out of old Reel to Reels. This has got me wondering if I can make a clock out of an old record or cover a ceramic pot in shattered CDs/DVDs. The use for old, obsolete formats of music is virtually endless. So don’t just let your old 8-tracks/cassettes just slowly fade away and become magnetic dust, create!
January 14th, 2010 @6:14 am
This is simply amazing! I have been trying to find ways to recycle my cassettes, but I don’t have the artistic talent to do this! I did however use this company cassettemp3player.com to recycle some of my stuff. You can a cool retro cassette that uses an SD card with all your files converted from the cassettes as mp3. So check it out, if you don’t have the time or artistic greatness to make this kind of art..
May 6th, 2010 @3:09 am
Superbly creative! I have a couple of boxes of old cassette tapes too… and now i know what to do with them. Thanks for the inspiration!
July 10th, 2010 @4:07 pm
S-Preme sicktape 2 mixtape cover by the same artist.
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/gowhere-hip-hop/assets_c/2009/10/s-preme-sicktape2-thumb-525×525-25359.jpeg
download link
http://www.djbooth.net/index/mixtapes/entry/s-preme-the-sicktape-volume-2/
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