When the project tide starts to recede, as it pretty much does at this time of the year in Agency Land, I tend to get a bit introspective. Which is ok, as I’ve lot to think about and never seem to find the time (or at least feel like) I’m really keeping near the bleeding edges, let alone running ahead of the cutting.
It also means trying to avoid a thousand distraction-posts about resolutions, trends and inspiration-infographics for 2023. And second-guessing which tech-trend to try and band-wagon onto - because we all need to keep ahead of the bloatware latch-ons that seem to drive what passes for good design practice Right Now - doesn’t really help all that much.
After all, if we’re all reading the same advice as to what Piero Fornasetti neatly coined as ‘memories of the future’, how is that going to help? All we end up doing is chasing tails rather than looking for leads.
So, with some light-relief, to the news that analogue could be making a (small-ish) comeback via an unlikely channel - the cassette tape.
Funny it should be something mechanical to catch the ears (or attention) when, let’s be honest, as a medium tape is a pretty rubbish technology. And I love them.
All my formative musical education came from pirating music (sorry Artists everywhere), which considering that it’s even easier now that it was then - a C60 might get you 20-odd tracks. And flash-drive now? Hundreds? - makes the return of it all the (pleasingly) stranger.
Not that novelty isn’t great. And after a couple of dozen listens and an hour or two on a sunny windowsill, the music you heard last time you played it will have strangely evolved into something not quite in key or on tempo. Which makes cassette tape a sort-of prototype midJourney for music, every press of the button delivering a slightly more wonky version of The Shop Assistants or Edgar Froese.
Perhaps next year we can look forward to a very welcome return of listening to mixtapes on actual boomboxes in the office, rather than suffering algorithm recommends tortured through substandard monitor speakers. And why stop there? Why not build your colleagues a sound system, à la Mungo’s HiFi and shake your fillings loose with base notes? Or your next presentation as a full-size piece of transportable agit-prop?
Music - well, all of the arts - are best enjoyed in their natural, animal forms. Maybe rather than trying to next-year-don’t-put-it-off resolve to boss next level AllTheFlavours of code, make some time to reconnect with some more mechanical interests?
Ready, set, solder!
