The Mobile Cassetteotheque:

When I moved in December of 2000 I found a box of over 100 cassette tapes that I hadn't listened to in years. I began to listen to them and realized that my identiy and personal history was intimately tied to my collecting of musical cassette tapes. I began inviting my friends over to listen to the tapes with me, though I barely let them listen to the music because I was too busy telling them about all of the memories that each tape held for me. As a young person many of my relationships were formed through the sharing of music and I decided to (literally) mobilize my cassette tape collection to form relationships with other people in my community.

I turned my cassette tape collection into a mobile lending library that I tow behind my bicycle. I lend my personal artifacts for a period of two weeks, and I accept donations of cassette tapes on an ongoing basis. This exchange builds and necessitates a relationship of mutual trust and respect. Borrowing members of the Mobile Cassetteotheque intuitively understand that the objects being exchanged are not merely music but personal histories. Each exchange may lead to conversation and closeness, not just with me and the borrower, but between any of the mobile casseteotheque patrons. Everyone has the opportunity to add thier own tapes (history) to the collection, program a pirate radio broadcast and leave a comment in the book that accompanies each tape.

Cassetteotheque is a word of my own invention. The Mobile Cassetteotheque is a social space that combines the democratic access to a data bank, like a library (bibliotheque), and the social aspects of the night club (discotheque). The Mobile Cassetteotheque moves through the city, creating social spaces wherever it moves. It is not a structure one enters and exits, but rather a movable architectures that opens to its environment.