Tellus cassette story

 

 

Obviously, the Tellus Cassette Audio Magazine publishers (visual artist and composer Joseph Nechvatal, curator Claudia Gould and composer Carol Parkinson) never considered running an underground publication, rather envisaging the cassette medium as an art form in itself. A quite unique point of view at a time (the 1980s) when many self released cassettes blossomed through mail order or trade between artists, and when the cassette milieu was promoting DIY technique, even anti-art as a motto. 

 

The famous Audio Cassette Magazine never indulged into amateurism, their releases always focused, well researched and aptly curated. From the start, the founding members deliberately aimed at raising the profile of their cassette releases, sending issues to US public libraries and museums, for instance. The Tellus team launched the Harvestworks Artist-In- Residence Program along the cassette series, to promote independent artists’ projects and provide them with a professional recording facility, named Studio PASS.

Annoncing Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine Party at Paradise Garage (1983) - by Joseph Nechvatal 

 

Nechvatal talks to Robert Barry about viral symphonies, cassette magazines, and art squats on The Quietus

& a link to listen the Tellus issues here on UbuWeb

 

 

Over the last half-century, Joseph Nechvatal’s Zelig-like career in the arts has taken him from working as La Monte Young’s archivist and squatting in Laurie Anderson’s building in Lower Manhattan to the Documenta festival in Kassel and the Lascaux Caves deep in the Dordogne. He’s worked with Jenny Holzer and Rhys Chatham, studied with Roy Ascott and Arthur Danto, and published his own work in almost every conceivable medium. In 1983, he founded Tellus, an audio magazine for the sonic arts, produced on cassette, and featuring, over its decade-long run, contributions from Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca, Wharton Tiers, Julius Eastman, Ellen Fullman, Christian Marclay, Woody Vasulka, Alison Knowles, and many, many more. In later years, he became a pioneer of virtual reality and artificial life, making work for concert halls, poetry imprints, and art galleries inspired by the likes of Antonin Artaud and Virginia Woolf.

 

 

pretend painful IOngO (with the voice of Marianne Faithfull) - by Joseph Nechvatal

 

 Nechvatal’ sélected sound works (1981 - 2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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