Tape Letters Scotland is set to launch a series of new audio-visual exhibitions in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, showcasing the use of audio cassette as a mode of long-distance communication by the Pakistani diaspora in Scotland between 1960–1980. Drawing directly from both first-hand interviews carried out by the project team and the informal, intimate conversations recorded on cassettes themselves, the exhibitions showcase the experiences of members of these communities, exploring the topics of migration, identity, communication and language.
A pre-cursor to the modern-day voice-note, audio cassette recordings became popular amongst British-Pakistani communities in the 1960s as a means of communicating with friends and relatives in Pakistan. The format offered a cheaper alternative to international telephone calls, whilst also providing a more accessible option for those unable to read or write letters. However, the practice has since remained largely unknown to many, even within British-Pakistani communities, with many original tapes lost or later recorded over.
First launched in 2018, Tape Letters is a pioneering project by Modus Arts, which aims to unearth, archive and represent a portrait of this method of communication for communities during this period. A time when the telephone was communal, the tapes left room for intimacy in messages to loved ones. The exhibition also significantly highlights the prominence of liberated female voices.
The project began with Modus Arts Director, Wajid Yaseen, discovering his own family’s history of sending personalised cassette tapes to relatives which uncovered a wide-spread history of the practice in England and more recently Scotland.
Yaseen says “The Tape Letters project has turned out to be far more fruitful than I could have envisaged, and analysing the archive has felt akin to undertaking a sort of ‘sonic archaeology’ – a deep dive into a wide range of fields and themes, including memory studies, linguistics, migration, discrimination, communication technologies, class and socio-economic dynamics, and many others. Although it has become a surprisingly complex social history project, it primarily demonstrates the deep and inherent need for people to communicate with each other in whatever way they can, wherever they’re originally from or wherever they find themselves in the world.”
The exhibitions will showcase the stories and experiences from 20 cassette tapes, and 80 oral histories, gathered from individuals and families living across Scotland’s central belt.
Faria Khan from Glasgow, who contributed to the archive, said, “Dad used to turn the cassette player on and test it and, you know, he’d bang on the mic saying “testing, testing.” It was just such an exciting thing preparing to record something! Like, what are we doing here? He’d then explain to us that it was a message for the family back home in Pakistan.”
Exhibition and Event Listings:
Tape Letters Scotland Exhibition:
Museum of Edinburgh
3rd October 2024 – 23rd February 2025
Tramway Glasgow
12th October 2024 – 31st January 2025
Dundee Central Library
22nd October– 31st December 2024
Public Talks:
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge building
Tuesday 8th October 2024
5-7pm
Tape Letters Scotland: Digital Exhibition (VR)
Available from 2nd October 2024
Tape Letters Scotland: Podcast
Available from December 2024
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 