TELLUS The Audio Cassette Magazine Marathon :: Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. - November 13 at 12:00 a.m. :: at Harvestworks, 596 Broadway, #602, New York, NY :: Created By Joseph Nechvatal ::

Harvestworks/TELLUS can be viewed at the Alternative Histories Exhibition at Exit Art. (exitart.org) and tellusmedia.org

The presentation will take place in the Harvestworks audio gallery starting with TELLUS #1 through TELLUS #27 played in one hour segments starting at 3 pm until midnite on the following days: Thursday, November 11 – Issues #1 - #9 :: Friday November 12 - Issues #10 - #18 :: Saturday November 13 – Issues #19 - #27.

In 1987 it was predicted that TELLUS could “overthrow the entire hierarchy of established music … through the power of home electronics, the technological revolution by which Everyman can now afford sophisticated electronic performing and recording equipment”. - John Rockwell New York Times Sunday July 27, 1987

TELLUS was created in 1983 at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal, a visual artist, Claudia Gould, a curator and Carol Parkinson, a composer and staff member of Harvestworks/Studio PASS met to discuss the idea of a magazine on cassette that would feature interesting and challenging sound works. With the advent of the Walkman and the Boom Box, the editors perceived a need for an alternative to radio programming and the commercially available recordings on the market at that time.

AS A TEAM they began to collect, produce, document and define the art of audio through publishing works from local, national and international artists. We worked with contributing editors, experts in their fields, who proposed themes and collected the best works from that genre. Unknown artists were teamed with well-known artists, historical works were juxtaposed with contemporary and high art with popular art, all in an effort to enhance the crossover communication between the different mediums of art - visual, music, performance and spoken word.

“One of the clear things I remember about that evening at the Rum Runner bar in 1983 is that Joseph envisioned us being so successful that one day Tellus would have it’s own building in midtown. While that clearly never happened It was however that same passion, and enthusiasm that we all carried with us with each diverse issue that we put into the world. Today I see with more clarity how important that work really was”. Claudia Gould

“With what seemed like the sudden post-industrial affordability of home cassette recording technology in the 1970s, combined with the simultaneous influence of DIY punk rock magazines and edgy art publication projects (such as Barbara Ess and Glenn Branca’s “Just Another Asshole”) the idea for “Tellus: the audio cassette magazine” came naturally. Steeped in the aftermath of Fluxus and the expanded arts, Tellus came together just at the moment when anyone could produce art noise. Anyone could record and distribute it. And so we did”. -Joseph Nechvatal

Founded in 1977, Harvestworks (also known as StudioPASS – the Public Access Synthesizer Studio) was started by artists to provide low-cost access to advanced sound equipment to foster new experimental sound works. The StudioPASS environment had a dynamic, hands-on, inside the electronics creative feel to it that was open and receptive to the new ideas brought in by the young, twenty-something TELLUS team. – Carol Parkinson

http://www.harvestworks.org/index.php option=com_content&view=article&id=403%3Atellusmarathon&catid=3%3Anewsflash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tellus_Audio_Cassette_Magazine