Magnetic affinities: affective media archaeology and emergent socialities of tape in post-war Britain

This article recovers some of the marginalised discourses and material practices associated with tape recording in the context of British tape clubs at the turn of the 1960s. Combining theories of affect, care and maintenance with extensive archival material (including amateur publications), it proposes an affective archaeology of tape, exploring it as a relational everyday medium, and as a potential site of innovation and experimentation – notably in caregiving environments. Methodologically, the article is built on the cumulative “little stories” of tape and incorporates their mundanity, unfinishedness and contingency. Drawing from archival data, it reconstructs discarded and ephemeral – yet culturally significant – vernacular media practices (such as tapesponding), thus offering a valuable complement (and counterpoint) to narratives fetishising the links between magnetic recording technology and avant-gardism (particularly within the context of musique concrète and electronic music). The first two parts of the article retrace the historical development and modus operandi of amateur recording clubs in the UK, attending to their local, national as well as transnational dimensions. The third part teases out the dynamic role of tape in everyday practices of maintenance and care – asking what it means to care about and with tape.