Etching Sound, cutting TikTok sounds
Etching Sound: Cutting TikTok Sounds captures contemporary attention culture by analogizing the fleeting, hyper-fragmented audio of TikTok with the permanence of vinyl. In a live performative act, Yoshe used the Record Factory PO-80 by Teenage Engineering to record and etch a 3-minute stream of sounds collected from TikTok—viral clips, ambient noise, memes—directly onto a vinyl disc. The browsing, sampling, and cutting happen simultaneously, mirroring how we consume short-video content in rapid succession.
By transferring TikTok’s compressed, ephemeral audio into analog grooves, this work asks: what do we lose — and gain — when digital moments are “frozen” in time? A vinyl record traditionally holds a single complete song with space for intent, duration, structure. In contrast, these TikTok fragments spill over that form, blurring beginnings and endings in rapid montage. The piece encourages reflection on entertainment’s evolution, digital vs analog modes of listening, memory, and attention.
Presented as a physical record, audio playback, and documentation of the live process, Etching Sound invites audiences to inhabit the tension between transience and preservation, noise and artifact.
