the skeletons of dead media

you may recall i once posted about an erika iris simmons set on flickr called ghost in the machine, which used old tapes to create amazing portraits of famous people, you can see the post here, well it seems erika isn't the only one to find amazing uses for old cassettes. an atlanta based, chicago born artist by the name of brian dettmer has taken old cassettes and given them a new lease of death, so to speak. check these out.

without using any glue or other materials, brian melts and moulds these old cassettes using only his hands and a few other tools, taking this dead form of media and sculpting it into literal skeletons. apparently inspired by seeing a dead bird whilst walking down the street one day, he stated "here was this thing that used to live, it used to fly around and play a vital role, and now it is dead and all that remains is the solid material", brian took this idea linking the life of the cassette to that of the animals and created this series of skeletons.

following on from the animal skeletons, brian created 12 skulls which lead to perhaps the most impressive skeleton he created, a the full human skeleton created using over 180 tapes 

this are all incredible, this attention to detail is brilliant and all created from only old cassette tapes, my mind is completely blown, it makes you look at the things surrounding you now, what will become of them, what will they become. 

you can find out more about brian at his website here

ghost in the machine

stumbling around the internet whilst looking for nothing inparticular i came across this image.

i was amazed by this piece, created out of nothing but a vhs tape of the big lebowski, the artist has created the iconic character of the dude. after digging a little deeper i found that it was created by an artist called erika iris simmons, who specialises in using non traditional media. her set on flickr 'ghost in the machine' where she creates portraits of musicians and celebrities using old cassette tapes, vhs tapes and movie reels, and the inspiration for this post, is incredible, she states "the idea comes from a philosopher's (ryle) description of how your spirit lives in your body. i imagine we are all, like cassettes, thoughts wrapped up in awkward packaging", with that in mind, heres some more of her work.

each piece has its own personality and is brought to life in such an amazing way, such an aptly named flickr set. so next time your having a clearout and throwing away hundreds of old cassettes or vhs spare a though for the ghost in the machine.

there are a b unch more plus some othe non tradition pieces over at the flickr page, or her personal website

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