Tape Club

Tape Club is an attempt to construct new archives that circulate via hand and post. Each member assembles an archive kit that includes instructions and a tape recorder, alongside other objects: cameras, blanks, stamps, even cash. These kits are then passed around, and sent back to MayDay Rooms when complete.

A number of tapes have been sent out, but one has returned. It sent out on the September 2019 and returned in June 2020.

The instructions for this tape were as follows:

You can listen to the tape here:

As far as we know the tape passed through three hands, and two descriptions were recorded.

Participant 1 description:
The week before Christmas 2019, I went to JD Sports on Oxford Street. I took everything out of the envelope on the north side of the street. I wound the instant camera on, took a picture of JD, and crossed the street. I drank the Coke as I went up the escalator to the first floor and back down again. I chose Coke Original as I was thinking I might give up refined sugars for January. I came out and tried to find a place to crush the can. I walked down the street, down the steps towards the Photographer’s Gallery, and crushed the can next the bins by the gay sauna (at that point under renovation).

Participant 2:
N/A

Participant 3 description:
In May 2020, during lockdown, I moved to Streatham Common. The walk I took there was super different from where I used to live. There was a guy who played sax kinda badly in the park, where I walked to get to Lidl, between 3pm and 8pm every day. There's a lot of audible signifiers in my routine these days. The walk is quite long so it's split into two recordings: through the forest and the last stretch of road before reaching Lidl at Crown Point. Waiting in the carpark for entry with the most company you get all week, and lastly, the sound of me entering the store.

~

We await the return of the other tapes. Until then, please do get in touch if you would like to be part of this project.