Code Page 437

<Delta Tango Alpha>

Assembled from photographs I took.

Overcast, some bullshit.

Dead Air Archive is a collection of recordings from micro cassettes across the world. Such tapes were typically used in answering machines and dictaphones. As such they most often contain voicemails, and memos to one’s self or documentation of work.

When listening to these on my own time I was awe struck at the feeling it conjured in me. Getting a contextless view into the every day banalities of someone’s life. Someone you will never meet, and listening to these recordings these etchings of the mundane and extraordinary parts of their lives. Captured in a fully candid and genuine form.

Some are seemingly unremarkable, field notes of grandmas happy birthday wishes. But even these recordings tell a story of a life you will never live, nor be privy to. A contextless look into world from a completely new view, presented as is, with candor.

Then again, some tapes are extraordinary. From heart wrenching accounts of infidelity or relationship issues, to piecing together the flaws and issues that the speaker or owner of the phone line dealt with on a daily interpersonal basis.

…

Whatever, I’ve said enough. At the end of the day this project is for me, but I hope some of you will see the beauty I have found in these tapes, that without this project, would have been left to disintegrate and accrue into the next generations of life.