Research project
Tape Letters: Archiving Audio Histories in Pakistan and the UK (1960-1990)
- Start date: 1 November 2026
- End date: 31 October 2029
- Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council
- Primary investigator: Professor WiIliam Gould
- External co-investigators: Professor Kate Pahl; Dr Michael Gallagher; Dr Purba Hossain
- Postdoctoral researchers: Dr Shazia Khan (Manchester Metropolitan University); Dr Syma Tariq (University of Leeds)
Description
This project explores how the technological development of the cassette tape between the 1960s and 1980s changed the means by which individuals and communities interacted with, collected, and shared sound. It made new social connections possible, and home sound recording affordable. Cassettes also mediated people’s experiences of space, distance and movement, and the relationship between the home, neighbourhood, region and globe.
The research project will use the case study of an ongoing sound-art project around the production of ‘Tape Letters’ among British-Pakistanis. ‘Tape Letters’ are cassettes used for long-distance communication between families following migration, at a time before the availability of the internet, and when international phone calls were unaffordable.
Archive partners
The project will explore how these tapes reconstitute the idea, production and significance of the community sound archive and methods for pursuing oral history, curation and archiving between:
- Tape Letters England and Scotland (led by Wajid Yaseen of Modus Arts)
- National Library of Scotland
- Glasgow Women’s Library
- Bishopsgate Institute
- Citizens Archive Pakistan.
Examining the similarities and differences between the practices of these archives will generate new knowledge about how community archiving and everyday sound histories can be done in more creative, inclusive, and accessible ways.
Working in global partnership
The project will enable two-way international exchange of knowledge and skills, in which archivists and researchers in the global north will learn from those in the global south and vice versa. As well as the main archive partners, the project is in collaboration with:
- Professor Kate Pahl, Dr Michael Gallagher, Dr Shazia Khan (Manchester Metropolitan University)
- Dr Purba Hossain (University of York)
- Professor Ali Usman Qasmi (Lahore University of Management Sciences)
- Professor Zoya Sameen (Aga Khan University)
Find out more
Find out more about this project on the UKRI Gateway to Research website.
Image credit
Image credit: Maryam Wahid, used with permission of Modus Arts.