TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Unfolding Stories
Greedy Dust & 1.Spesifikasi: Reviving cassette tapes through a design perspective
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
Unique design: 1.Spesifikasi is open to creating designs for tape cassettes that are more difficult to produce as they require deeper technical know-how. (Courtesy of 1.Spesifikasi) (Courtesy of 1.Spesifikasi/Courtesy of 1.Spesifikasi)
Cassette tape revivalists Delpi Suhariyanto and Arno Zarror breathe new life into a forgotten medium.
In the past few months, Arno Zarror, the man behind cassette tape-duplication initiative 1.Spesifikasi, has spent a lot of his time at the customs office in Tangerang, Banten.
1.Spesifikasi, which translates as 'one specification', chose its name to give a sense of list-like unity between its Instagram handle and captions for every post.
Arno has had to participate in a state-initiated auction to buy back the OTARI brand cassette tape-duplication machine that he bought and shipped from Japan through Zenmarket (an online shopping proxy service for shopping at Japanese auction sites).
Apparently, the machines were shipped by the seller without proper documentation.
“I ended up giving [the tape duplicators] up,” said Arno. “I think Lokananta [a state-owned records duplication company in Surakarta, Central Java] uses the same machine for its duplication services.”
Arno then spent a significant amount of time combing through a couple of major cities in Java. Following tiny leads given by enthusiasts and communities, he scoured through the remnants of the golden age of cassette tapes in Indonesia.
More from The Weekender
Tinggal Meninggal: How Kristo Imanuel dares moviegoers to laugh at death
Kristo Imanuel didn’t expect this film to be made. But now that it is, it might be doing exactly what he hoped: Helping people laugh at things they’re too afraid to talk about.
Breaking down 'Sore Idaman': Loss and love, on loop
A romance turned sci-fi turned tragedy, Yandy Laurens' Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan isn’t just a tearjerker: It’s a meditation on choosing love, every single time. Note: This review may contain spoilers.
Jakarta: A ‘city of cinema’ in the making
Jakarta has the potential to become a City of Cinema. But it needs more than a vision; it needs a system.
