For the second project, Dead Tech, I worked alone. After going through various phases with this assignment, this is my final result, and where my obsession with cassette tapes began. From destroyed Apple remote, (now) seemingly useless retro controllers, and budget constraints, I restarted back to the radio that I was so in love with I didn’t even want to take it apart. For some inexpensive modifications, I decided to use the dead tech of the cassette tape. There is not as much technology involved as I would like, but there is a cohesive theme present. I have repurposed several cassette tapes to be ID cases (and decorated them for kicks) and turned my beloved radio into a decorative carrying case for my ID cases. A case with in a case if you will.
To create the cases, I gutted the insides of the cassettes by unscrewing them, emptying their contents, and using pliers to remove any interior plastic that would prevent an ID from sitting inside. Because small hinges were hard to come by and time was not on my side, instead I used fasteners (found in a craft store) and a glue gun to hold the cassette casing together. Aside from decorating, the next important step was to create closures for the cases. Using fasteners, a necklace chain, and clasps, I fashioned unique closures for each case. They are not as easy to see in this picture, but the details of how they look are documented in previous blog posts.
Although this is not where I intended to be with this project, I’m glad that I was able to turn it around into something despite the obstacles.
