Album Cover Art and Design
More evidence that the album format continues to endure. The digital format is useful in terms of archiving the data, or for accessing the work in the cloud-- but music needs a tangible cultural artifact to be truly archival.
The mental model for the 'single' is still associated with the vinyl 45, at least for a certain demographic. For those that did not grow up with vinyl, the format has even more cultural resonance. We seem to be nostalgic for that time, as evidenced by Arcade's single for the title track, 'The Suburbs'.
In the interview with the New York Times, Butller said, “I’m not going to stop making albums because of some fad of digital distribution. The idea that you just have to make bad cheap stuff and sell it cheaply because the format changes, to me, is crazy. It’s more important than ever to me to have the artwork and the recording be as great as they can be.”
And what better way to present this music than in petroleum-based medium like vinyl! How clever to have the music be informed by the 'pulp' that it is printed on.
The cover of Mémoires, an artist book by the French situationist Guy Dubord and artist Asger Jorn is made of sandpaper:
Dubord: "Can you imagine the result when the book lies on a blank polished mahogany table, or when it's inserted or taken out of the bookshelf. It planes shavings off the neighbour's desert goat."
Dubord's idea of 'The Spectacle' was for the purpose of portraying reality in its most tangible form:
'The spectacle epitomizes the prevailing model of social life. It is the omnipresent celebration of a choice already made in the sphere of production, and the consummate result of that choice. In form as in content the spectacle serves as total justification for the conditions and aims of the existing system.'
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Idea: To extrapolate that idea album cover art, release it partially finished on paper or canvas and have the listeners complete the cover and share their versions on the Net and in gallery shows.
The mental model for the 'single' is still associated with the vinyl 45, at least for a certain demographic. For those that did not grow up with vinyl, the format has even more cultural resonance. We seem to be nostalgic for that time, as evidenced by Arcade's single for the title track, 'The Suburbs'.
In the interview with the New York Times, Butller said, “I’m not going to stop making albums because of some fad of digital distribution. The idea that you just have to make bad cheap stuff and sell it cheaply because the format changes, to me, is crazy. It’s more important than ever to me to have the artwork and the recording be as great as they can be.”
And what better way to present this music than in petroleum-based medium like vinyl! How clever to have the music be informed by the 'pulp' that it is printed on.
The cover of Mémoires, an artist book by the French situationist Guy Dubord and artist Asger Jorn is made of sandpaper:
Dubord: "Can you imagine the result when the book lies on a blank polished mahogany table, or when it's inserted or taken out of the bookshelf. It planes shavings off the neighbour's desert goat."
Dubord's idea of 'The Spectacle' was for the purpose of portraying reality in its most tangible form:
'The spectacle epitomizes the prevailing model of social life. It is the omnipresent celebration of a choice already made in the sphere of production, and the consummate result of that choice. In form as in content the spectacle serves as total justification for the conditions and aims of the existing system.'
***
Idea: To extrapolate that idea album cover art, release it partially finished on paper or canvas and have the listeners complete the cover and share their versions on the Net and in gallery shows.
