Le Cliché: Records, Tapes and the Sound of Consumption

A shop window display of record covers, cassette tapes and music objects exploring the relationship between sound, format and consumer culture.

The Farrell Centre’s shop window presents a selection of record covers, cassette tapes and related material from Le Cliché, an artist-led electronic music project by Professor Gerard Ryan of Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Catalonia, Spain.

Le Cliché works with the visual and material culture of recorded music. Its releases use album sleeves, cassette formats, limited editions, label identities and promotional imagery as part of the artwork itself. The project asks how music is shaped by the objects, images and market forms through which it circulates.

Displayed in the shop window, these works invite passers-by to look at music as something seen, collected, packaged and displayed, as well as heard. The exhibition connects pop music, visual lp artwork, consumer culture and the everyday architecture of the street-facing window.

About Gerard Ryan

Gerard Ryan is Professor of Marketing at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Catalonia, Spain and Visiting Researcher with the Sound + Environment Research Group at Newcastle University, directed by Dr Rob Mackay and Dr Usue Ruiz Arana.

The display was curated by Dr Usue Ruiz Arana.