The 8 Bit Construction Set by Beige Records
A conceptual DJ battle record with one Atari and one Commodore side. Each side contains music produced with wither home computer plus software. You can record the record on datasette and load it via a tape drive into your Atari or Commodore. The Atari software is a little graphic demo, the Commodore software is a small music sequencer.
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The 8 Bit Construction set

Featured by Alessandro Ludovico.

Even if mostly unknown it was a not so rare practice in the English eighties pop scene to include software on a vinyl music track. Some code written for the so popular Sinclair Spectrum was included in ten or so vinyl and cassette releases ranging from the most basic ascii art messages to graphic adventures, challenging the customers to record them on tape and then load the resulting software in his home computer. But does it still makes sense to put software on a vinyl track? The 'sound of code' is made of terrifying frequencies and can even damage some speakers if played out too loudly. But from a conceptual perspective the challenge has only mutated and differentiated. First of all it is a media paradox, because a new medium (software) is recorded on an older one (vinyl), exploiting it for something it was not intended for. Then it makes sense also because is an efficient, even if uncommon, way of preserving software. Vinyl has proved as one of the most stable and durable medium (about one hundred years guaranteed), while magnetic surfaces and cds has already proven their vulnerability. Finally it makes sense in a distribution perspective. The vinyl track becomes a meta-product that is distributed with the discs, but not directly enjoyable through the turntable and the speakers. The product is 'wrapped' in a different package that implies a subsequent software necessary conversion. So the vinyl becomes a piece of obsolete hardware and the audio digitalization could be seen as a software restore of the original form and sense of the music.

by admin, posted 14 Nov 2004


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