Nostalgia for older forms of music media – specifically vinyl records, and to a lesser extent, cassette tapes – has really taken hold in pop culture, but thanks to the website Visual News, we found two artists who have turned that obsession into a new form of expression.
Ted Riederer and Brian Dettmer work separately in various media, but coincidentally each of them has found a link between a passion for music and skills with creating physical art.
Riederer, who is also a musician, creates his “Skullptures” by melting vinyl records of his favorite music (I'm assuming he's got backup copies) over a plaster skull mold. The result is a kind of three-dimensional depiction of how music is often linked to particular memories.
Dettmer, who is known for carving intricate sculptures out of books, applies a different kind of melting technique to create his audio cassette designs, which take on many macabre shapes. The twisted plastic skeletons are his comment on how old forms of media storage (i.e., the cassette tape) are becoming extinct.
I'd love to see what Dettmer could do with old VHS horror tapes, or maybe some of Riederer's skulls crafted from Slayer, Skinny Puppy or Alice Cooper LPs... but just the thought of melting them down is terrifying enough!