Clothes are a way to express our feelings and appearance. Alyce Santioro, conceptual artist, created “sonic cloth” from 50% polyester threads and 50% cassette tape. This woven material can be used to play audio and looks great.

Sonic Cloth

Tad Doyle plays guitar and vocals with his wife Peggy Doyle playing bass and Dave French drums (both members of Seattle stoner group The Anunnaki). sonic Cloth delivers a heavy dose of doom along with some great songwriting. Their debut LP, titled “Sonic Cloth”, is a surprise with its assortment of serrated riffs as hulking compositions.

The sonic fabrics craze

This piece started out as an artwork, but it has become a tangible thing. Alyce Santioro, conceptual artist, invented the fabric. He took inspiration from Tibetan prayer banners and created a woven fabric that could play music.

The sonic fabric lingo

Santoro used a special shuttle to weave the fiber. It was able to handle the tapes that were 1/8 inches wide. To create the fabric, she used a 1940s Dobby to sew it together. This piece is about a meter in length and can produce serious sonic waves when amplified using a tape player.

sonicplush launched a line in sonic fabrics, hand-made in Manhattan by Julio Cesar. Grab a pair from Santoro’s website to take with you on your next city trip.