Research Focus Group Talk: Tape Letters: Migration on Tape

The Tape Letters project shines light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tape as a mode of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in the UK between 1960 and 1980. Drawing directly both from first-hand interviews and from the informal and intimate conversations on the cassettes themselves, the project seeks to unearth, archive, and represent a portrait of this method of communication, as practiced mainly by Pothwari-speaking members of the British-Pakistani community, commenting on their experiences of migration and identity, commenting on the unorthodox use of cassette tape technology, and commenting on the language used in the recordings.

Wajid Yaseen is a Manchester-born, London-based artist whose work draws on an interdisciplinary approach to develop sound-based works encompassing installations, live performances, acousmatic music, graphic scores, and sound sculptures. He is the Creative Director of the sound art research cooperative Modus Arts, the co-founder of the destructivist Scrapclub project, and director of the Ear Cinema project. Wajid holds an M.A. in Arts and Design with a focus on Sonic Arts, and his work has been exhibited and performed at the ICA Gallery, Arnolfini, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Whitechapel Gallery, Laban, and Freud Museum.

Sponsored by the IHC’s South Asian Religions and Cultures Research Focus Group, Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, and Library Special Collections