The Background:

How do we literally deal with all the disused technology and media of former days? Especially, when they were so closely tied into our personal biographies and cultures like the music-media?

Cassette recorders are a perfect example for such a medium, which has shaped the lifestyle and the reception of music for several generations and has given us so many lovely 60-90-120 minutes.

After the first release of a cassette recorder by Phillips in 1963, this revolutionary sound carrier conquered the world until in 1979 the Sony Walkman was released.

The self edited mix tape with distinguished dramaturgy became a way of expressing an attitude to life and a favorite medium for a juvenile commitment of love.

Since then, the old Walkmans have been replaced. The ancestral portrait gallery of following techniques is long: The CD came through, The Minidisc appeared and soon disappeared and nowadays the I-pod puts together the soundtrack of our life in one device.

Due to nostalgic reasons, we seldom throw away the outdated walkmans and so they transform from objects of use to item of remembrance or simply dust collectors.

In the meantime, the already rapidly changing technologies seem to be more and more abstract for us.

Not so the Cassette recorder, especially in its portable and battery driven Version – be it a walkman or a Ghettoblaster. Here a powerful engine takes care of the transport of the magnetic tape.

Engine? Wheels? Movement?.....

The FORM^forte Research team has discovered the big potential of such devices as vehicles and has practically shown this ability.

The basic technology of the tape transport offers perfect possibilities.

We have been able to motivate a broad public for this event – in form of a competition, the recorder race. The effect was that we developed this fundamental idea together with electronic motor sport freaks.

After the big success of the races 2003 and 2004 the third International Recorder Race will take place in the Phönixhalle of Dortmund – in cooperation with the hartware MedienKunstVerein.