morning thoughts on Dictaphonia

One of the reasons I am doing the Dictaphonia project is to promote the use of microcassette! Lots of people have written me telling me that they didn't own a microcassette machine but that they were going to buy one just so they could participate!

Some people wrote to me saying that they would borrow one from a friend - but I discouraged this, saying "how are you going to listen to the comp when it comes out if you have to give the recorder back after you get done recording?"

I do appreciate all contributions that I have received. All of them sound great and are special to me! I especially admire the contributing audio/noise artists who actually love microcassette and worked with it as a medium and used it as an audio art/noise tool to create their piece. Microcassette is more than a way to document. It's a way to create.

All of the Dictaphonia volumes will be online eventually. This weekend Dictaphonia #1 will go up on my web site. But the tracks will be presented as individual mp3 files - not zipped - and so the only way someone is ever going to get the full idea of what Dictaphonia #1 sounds like and how it flows is to listen to the tape itself. But putting it all online is a way to promote microcassette use - maybe someone who previously balked at the idea of buying a micro recorder to participate will change their minds after hearing the stuff online. Plus for the thousands of hal mcgee dot com visitors/listeners in China this will be the only way for them to hear it. :)