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Audio Arts cassettes display

Audio Arts Cassettes was a sound magazine documenting contemporary artistic activity via artist or curator interviews, as well as sound performances or sound art by artists. The project was launched in 1973 by British sculptor Bill Furlong (with contributions from curator Barry Barker & Michael Archer who both soon left). From 1973 to 2006, Audio Arts published 25 volumes of 4 issues of the Audio Arts Cassettes (later releasing CDs as well). Bill Furlong conducted the interviews (recording Andy Warhol for instance, while gathering material for his doctoral thesis). From 1996 on, Jean Wainwright took the baton as interviewer. Each interview starts with I am here with..., stating artist's name and recording location. Interviewees include: Andy Warhol, Anish Kapoor, Joseph Beuys, Gilbert & George, Yoko Ono, R. Buckminster Fuller, Hermann Nitsch, Mario Merz, Gerhard Richter, Nam June Paik, as well as an interview with WB Yeats' daughter and readings by Yeats himself (in Vol.1 Issue #4, 1974).

[edit] The cassette medium

Bill Furlong interviewing Joseph Beuys in 1985

Some of the interviewees were themselves great defenders of the cassette medium, like Lawrence Weiner and Dieter Roth. In interview with Ilari Valbonesi, Furlong says he considered the cassette medium as a radical form of communication back in 1973. What he means by radical can be figured out from this Jean Wainwright recollection:

'I am reminded of Vito Acconci's work Face Off (1973) where he listens attentively to his own-recorded voice on an audio tape player telling of extremely intimate moments in his life. When the confessional material becomes too highly charged for him he cries out over the taped voice, no don't tell this, don't reveal this, his dramatic response to his conflicting drives between self-revelation and self-concealment.' (from interview)

[edit] Legacy

Cover for Audio Arts cassette Vol. 16 #3-4,

With the acquisition of the Audio Arts archive by Tate in 2004 (itself a long-time subscriber to Audio Arts cassettes releases), over 200 boxes of master tapes used to edit the magazine are now secured for future researchers. A selection was exhibited at Tate Britain March-August 2007.

In October-December 2006, a retrospective exhibition curated by Daniela Cascella took place at Rome’s Sound Art Museum showing a selection of Audio Arts releases and adding a new sound art by Furlong: Conversation Pieces, a reworking/remixing of preview Furlong interviews, making famous interwiewees respond to each other by the magic of cut-up. See SlashSeconds.org.

[edit] References

• Bill Furlong Audio Arts: Discourse & Practice in Contemporary Art, published by Academy Editions, London, 1994.
• Overview and index of the Audio Arts releases.
• Bill Furlong interview
• Bill Furlong biography