echo// is about sound, time, and the quiet process of decay. It is made with two reel-to-reel tape recorders connected in a loop. Tape recorder A records and plays at the same time, and its output is sent into tape recorder B, which plays the signal back into A. Whatever enters the loop is immediately repeated, passed through the tape, and fed back into itself. The loop begins in silence. When the machines are turned on, the vibration of their motors creates the first signal. The record heads pick up that faint hum, and the system starts to wake up. That small noise travels through the loop and layers on itself over and over.

The loop is short, about ten to thirty seconds. Each time the signal comes around, it changes slightly. Dust, friction, and the natural imperfections of magnetic tape leave their trace. At first, the sound has a soft vintage crackle. Over the course of a few hours, that texture breaks down and slowly turns into a wash of white noise, like a memory wearing itself out. The tape loop is a closed system. No new sounds are added after the start. All change comes from the tape moving in circles, repeating and slowly degrading itself. This is a small model of entropy, the inevitable drift of things toward disorder.

The visual presence of the piece is quiet. The tape recorders and their spinning reels are visible, with the tape running vertically, but they are placed off to the side and softly lit so they do not feel like the main attraction. The work is meant to be atmospheric, something that lives in the room rather than demanding attention.

echo// is a piece that invites patience. If you sit with it, you may not notice the change as it happens, but if you hear it at the start and return hours later, it will be completely different. It reflects the way things in life decay almost invisibly until the difference is undeniable. The machines are both instruments and witnesses, carrying the memory of every repetition until everything, given enough time, fades into noise.

Developed during a 2025 Summer Sessions residency at V2_.