By Paul Gessell

When big ships are decommissioned, they are often sent to some developing country to be stripped of all salvageable materials. Many outdated computers are likewise dismantled in China, with certain parts recycled. But what about small, cheap, obsolete objects? Where do they go, besides your personal garbage can?

Consider the lowly cassette tape. They started squeezing vinyl LPs out of the market in the 1970s. Then, a decade later, the tapes were muscled out by CDs. So, what ever happened to all those cassette tapes loaded with your favourite tunes? Thousands of them landed on the doorstep of Karen Jordon, the Ottawa artist who has never found any object too lowly to recycle. She even managed to turn human hair found in her shower drain into delicate sculptures. (more…)