SAF collects cassettes to preserve UAE voices

Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) has invited individuals, families and communities in the UAE to contribute cassette tape recordings as part of a project that explores and preserves the history of voice correspondence.

For this open call, participants should submit cassette tapes that document personal messages, exchanges and stories shared between family members, friends and loved ones-across borders, across generations or in casual gatherings.

These tapes serve as cultural artefacts and historical records of migration, identity and the changing dynamics of communication.

Personal cassette tapes should date to the period between 1970 and 2000 and should be related to the UAE, but the project is open to contributions from surrounding regions with similar practices of cassette tape communication.

Tapes can be in the following languages: Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhala, Bengali, Nepali, Swahili, Tagalog, Farsi and English.

The tapes should contain voice messages, songs or recordings from family and friends, including but not limited to the following:

• Correspondence between family members separated by distance, particularly messages related to migration or work in the Gulf

• Mixtapes or voice letters. Tapes containing informal conversations that capture everyday life, celebrations and rituals.

The submitted tapes will be digitised and archived, along with a transcript of the content of each tape. Participants may request the return of their tapes at no cost.

The deadline for the entries is may 8, 2025: Recently, in a separate development, SAF announced the winners of the Sharjah Film Platform 7 Short Film Production Grant: Salim Abu Jabal for The Untold Story of Yusra, Fatima Wardy for White Musk and Basma Al Sharif for Morgenkreis/Morning Circle. The winning recipients will share a total of Dhs120,000.

Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF) and the Foundation also offered Dhs25,000 to an Emirati filmmaker jointly selected by the two institutions: Hana Kazim for Yathoom. Grant recipients will screen their completed films at a future edition of Sharjah Film Platform.

WAM