Feel the power of this nostalgic cassette culture video that whirls back to a time when you mastered the mix tape and actually owned a stereo (some of us still do). Hopefully the hypnotizing power of these miniature spools compels you to dig through your closet and play some of your old cassettes — or at least to click through and enjoy two minutes of tantalizing tapes. Read More »

When we remember the ’80s — and, truth be told, this might have something to do with the fact that we were kids then — we always seem to recall the era in neon colors. French graphic design studio Zim & Zou (the duo of Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann) must have similar memories, as they’ve sculpted a bright, wonderfully detailed series of retro electronics out of brightly colored paper. From a film-spewing Leica and a photo-spitting Polaroid to a Walkman with headphones and a cassette tape that fits inside it. Check out some of our favorite photos of Zim & Zou’s work after the jump, then click over to Behance to see the whole set, along with a video documenting their process.

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What, you ask, is this bizarre, light blue contraption with exposed circuit boards and attached audio cassette? Why, it’s apparently the world’s first digital camera! Back in 1975, Kodak created the “toasted-sized” prototype, which took a whopping 23 seconds to record its data on the cassette tape. ISO50 also points us to a fascinating first-person account of the project by the man who invented the camera.

So, you may be wondering, how did Kodak view the images in the days before convenient home computing? It turns out that it required an even uglier contraption. Take a peek at that machine and the photos it displayed after the jump.

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