"The fingerprint of the living mind": tape, technology, and performance

Abstract

This dissertation maps a shared territory between theatre/performance studies and music/sound studies via a materialist historiography of the tape recorder. It examines key musical and theatrical works by Steve Reich, Samuel Beckett, Alvin Lucier, Brian Eno, and Enda Walsh that position tape recording and playback as the foundation of their creative processes. It locates these works within a critical examination of the history and philosophy of technology vis-a-vis late capitalist information production and reproduction.