Once Upon Time: A Superficial History of Early Tape

Abstract

The early history of tape can be and has been told in a number of ways: as a byproduct of fascism; as a serendipitous outcome of signals intelligence and the spoils of the Second World War; or as a synergistic result of American capitalism at the hands of Bing Crosby and engineer John Mullin. Instead, I consider how Fritz Pfleumer's ‘sounding paper’ – inspired by his work in cigarette manufacturing – led to a medium that brings together elements of magnetic technologies (i.e., non-inscriptive data storage) with the plastic operations of film (e.g., cutting, splicing, looping), augmented by a variety of new temporal possibilities (e.g., pause, rewind). To that end, I analyse the production and subsequent circulation of tape, tape recorders, and tape recordings in Germany during the Second World War, including many orchestral recordings by Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan. After the war, these technologies and tapes were looted from Germany, leading to the subsequent emergence of tape recording in the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union. The post-war dissemination of tape illustrates not only the geopolitics of technology, but also the ways in which the peculiar characteristics of tape fostered certain cultural and technological practices.

The Recording Cure: A Media Genealogy of Recorded Voice in Psychotherapy

“…Albeit resonating with Freud’s ‘mystic writing-pad’ analogy for the psychic apparatus, the tape’s erasability is far more radical with no wax slab equivalent to retain past impressions. The double function of the ‘record’ button, simultaneously implementing new content while fully removing the old, suggests that not everything that can be preserved should be (McMurray, 2017). Thus, in addition to affording an interval between the patient-as-speaker and the patient-as-listener, tape recording also provided a temporary container for the patient’s feelings and thoughts – with the more recent emotional substance overriding the previous.…”