Hate Loop Tape Destruction

Publishing anything on the Internet means learning to deal with a never-ending firehouse of online hate.

German synthesist Hainbach – with help from Red Means Recording, Simon The Magpie and Noir Et Blanc Vie – created Hate Loops as a creative response.

Here’s what he has to say about it:

In which I tackle the troublesome topic of online hate, namely YouTube comments, with tape loop destruction.

Featuring hateful comments read by Red Means Recording, Simon The Magpie and Noir Et Blanc Vie, I create an abrasive yet strangely beautiful collage from some the worst stuff we get thrown at us regularly.

Technical Details:

Machines used: Nagra III 64, Nagra 4.2, Uher Report Monitor 4000
Tape: SM468 and unknown consumer grade tape
Destruction: Leatherman Wave, boxcutter blades, sand paper

13 thoughts on “Hate Loop Tape Destruction”

  2. hate it.

    no, just kidding. but i think this guy is overreacting. he cannot expect everybody to like what he is doing. publishing something means showing it to the public. and the public will inevitably react. if you cannot or do not like to stand criticism, just do not publish.

    i have my own youtube channel, i know what i am talking about. a lot of love and some hate there.

    1. Hate is not criticism. Nobody has to tolerate being insulted with racist, sexist, homophobic or antisemitic slurs. The only people overreacting are those who think hateful comments are an adequate reaction to a person making music in a video on the internet. There is a reason why literally every online platform prohibits hateful comments like those shown in the video: They are toxic and should not be tolerated anywhere, anytime.

      1. I guess that flagging those comments to YouTube audit could result in warnings or closed YouTube accounts depending on how many strikes the individual already have 🙂

    2. Critical comments and hateful comments are not at all the same thing. Can even have a ‘positive’ comment be hateful. Imagine something like “This is really great, especially considering you’re a [somestupidslur]”

      Also, let’s all agree that having a youtube channel is not a “know what I’m talking about” qualifier.

    3. Hey, those people make the comments, and Heimbach uses them as raw material in his art. Perhaps you’re the one overreacting. You seem to think artists should just passively accept criticism, but not mock or comment upon it themselves – that their role is merely to entertain and amuse, rather than say whatever they want through their artistic medium.

      I have noticed that some people (not you necessarily) get very upset when folk in the arts say or do anything political, as if art is just a product with which to decorate their life. But if you look at the history of art, almost all of it is political one way or another and the people who say that art should avoid political topics are the most political people of all, because they are trying to dictate to everyone else how society should be organized.

  6. Aww. This was kind of weirdly hilarious and charming. I felt bad for everyone though the comments were so idiotic and classic youtube that they were simultaneously funny and sad. I liked the idea of “exorcising” the mean and rude comments and sort of turning crap into maybe not gold but at least a sort of vaguely useful mylar substrate.

    I am now a fan of Hainbach and friends. 😀

  7. Clever response, and probably cathartic. But there’s an easier way to avoid online abuse? Disable comments on your videos. The comment sections (including here on Synthtopia) only feed into negativity, but sites leave them up because they increase engagement, so the people who complain about being abused tolerate the abuse because it ultimately benefits their engagement numbers on YouTube, weird cycle.

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