Looping slowly: Diffraction through the lens of nostalgia

Benedict Gaster; Nathan Renney; Jasmine Butt

Looping slowly: Diffraction through the lens of nostalgia
Image credit: Benedict Gaster; Nathan Renney; Jasmine Butt

Abstract:

This paper concerns magnetic tape and the nostalgia of media, finding new relevance in old technology, remaking and adapting practices to fit within a modern workflow. Pushing against the driving force of economic structures, which emphasises a continuous cycle of replacement, musicians and instrument designers are drawing on a shared history to create new pieces of art and machines. This can be read as reflecting NIME’s Code of Practice and, more generally, the unfolding climate crisis. For some, NIME may convey a focus on new musical instruments, but here, we focus on the notion of new through the diffracted lens of the old. Defined in recent NIME conferences by zooming in on the ‘O’ in NIME through the importance of reusing and repurposing old musical instruments and, in our case, old practices and processes. This paper considers magnetic tape and the machines that process it as the material and instrument. Following a survey, we present a diffracted reading through an intra-related process of how musicians, producers, and others who work with audio integrate tape into their practice. Drawing on post-humanist theories, we explore how slowness, community, and the old can inform NIME as a methodology. It provides insight for NIME to continue moving forward while focusing, through its Code of Practice, on sustainability, connection with our past, our history, years of artistic practice, and workflows that are not simply optimised for efficiency or the new.