Is Cover Art dead?
Thursday, August 21st, 2008In today’s Independent on Sunday legendary album cover designer Peter Saville has pronounced that album art “is dead.”
Saville is famous for the iconic artwork of New Order and Joy Division who he worked with extensively, he has also designed album covers for Pulp, Suede and Roxy Music.
“We have a social disaster on our hands,” he said, speaking from his studio this weekend, “The things that pop music was there to do for us have all been done… there’s nothing to rail against now.
“When I was 15, in the North-west of England … the record cover was like a picture window to another world. Seeing an Andy Warhol illustration on a Velvet Underground album was a revelation … It was the art of our generation … true pop art.”
But is Saville really only speaking for his generation? After all most 15 year olds in the North-west of England today won’t be aware that they’re missing out on Andy Warhol’s artwork, as it’s available to view in the mass media and on t-shirts in Afflecks Palace. The rate at which most 15 year olds in 2008 are consuming images in the media is beyond anything Saville would have dreamed of as a teenager in Manchester.
Is the artwork of bands to be consumed elsewhere, rather than packaged around a 12 inch disc of black plastic? Will classic album artwork of the future be all the surrounding marketing of an LP, its TV advert, its website, its promo videos?
Or will the 5cm squared artwork included on your iPod when you view the album details of your favourite tune be all there is left, a postage stamp size footnote of music history?
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Hmm. Well I guess I can kinda see Peter’s point. I seriously doubt album art will ‘die’ anytime soon. I know some people who organize their music with coverflow. For me though, I find it way too slow … but its nice for reference. Album Art doesn’t necessarily have to be pointless either…I mean if its something for a Britney Spears album I might understand if no one really cared about the art, but I honestly got the Tool 10,000 Days album because the album art is awesome. Plus the lens just trips you OUT. So I guess if album art is to be in the future, artists need to get innovative. And creative. No more slapdash photoshop shite like this:
Death of the author
Thursday, August 21st, 2008So we’re doing all this ‘death of the author’ stuff in my communications course, and lo and behold I stumble onto this site:
I am a newspaperman.
For some unexplainable reason, I am compelled to say that tonight.
Something is coming, some turn in the media universe, a turn in the future of my newspaper. A turn that will mean the end of me, of us. There will be reporters. Editors. Something called online producers and multi-media coordinators. Mojos. Slojos and Nojos. Bloggers, froggers and twitters.
But there won’t be newspapermen. At 58, I am among the last of a dying race.
And what a race it was. An American archetype.
A newspaperman was a writer. An author. The true, first voice of history. A newspaperman chronicled the life of his times on old Remingtons with faded ribbons. A newspaperman wrote on copy paper, one story in one take. If he wanted a copy, he used carbon paper. If it didn’t sing, it was spiked….
So has the ‘author’ really died or will it continue through digital media?? I suppose its an interesting problem to comprehend, because ‘journalism’ is clearly being taken over by citizen journalism today. The internet just makes things so much easier to find and getting news from different sources makes so much more difference than watching half an hour of fluff and puff pieces!!
And I gotta say, if the old media corporations want to get with the times, they should probably make things more interactive with their blogs….eg. New York Times. Plus their blogroll could also go to small timer, regular people’s blogs - not just journalists in high places. I mean just read this article and tell me what you think of the writing -_- Seriously the author, Elizabeth Farrelly even says: “The blogosphere is often offered as evidence of the mass amateurisation of publishing. And not in a good way.” The hell??? I’m sorry to say but I think 90% of bloggers out there agree this piece of writing is pretty amateurish in itself! I didn’t even know what her point is until I read the last paragraph on the second page. You know, if I wanted an article of how bad the Olympic coverage is over here, I could just surf over to Yahoo forums. They seem to be having a ball bashing Channel 7!! (me included xD)
Anywho I’d love to hear some other people’s thoughts on the ‘death of the author’…just leave a comment!
Old & New Media convergence
Thursday, August 14th, 2008Yeah yeah ok so old media is dying…newspapers, magazines, radio, tv - you name it. Everything’s happening on the interwebs!!! Well I guess these old medias have to get a bit creative to compete with all of this, because apparently Esquire magazine are going to print a one off anniversary edition in October with revolutionary electronic covers:
Esquire, one of America’s iconic magazines, is turning 75 this year. As part of the celebration of this milestone, the October issue will be the first magazine ever to embed a revolutionary digital technology - electronic paper - into a mass-produced print product.
In partnership with the all-new Ford Flex Crossover and in collaboration with E Ink Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of electronic paper display (EPD) technologies, Esquire’s groundbreaking cover will make a profound statement about how the print medium can expand its capabilities while continuing to exploit its own unique strengths. Ford will prominently feature its highly anticipated Ford Flex on the inside cover, utilizing the same E Ink Vizplex(TM) flexible display technology, in a double-page advertisement.
I don’t exactly know how electronic paper works, but apparently its made of a electrophoretic display which makes it flexible. This is a fairly new technology but it’ll be interesting to see how far this technology takes print media.
Awesome PS Effect
Sunday, August 10th, 2008I’ve been seeing the ‘turn a photo into a miniature model’ effect a LOT lately so I decided to finally look for a tutorial. There’s a great one here…which is what I followed to come up with this pic here :
Of course you’d have to find a nice pic to do this effect with….the angle in this one isn’t that great but OH WELL.
If you’d like to see more expert manipulated photos, click here!
Funny Joke
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Personality Test
Sunday, July 20th, 2008Click here to take this short and sweet personality test! Pretty cool but a bit predictable.
Everyone hates…
Sunday, July 20th, 2008the RI-fuckin-A squared!
Last image for the day..promise
Thursday, July 17th, 200825 things we can’t live without in the digital world…Autotune?? HAHAHA. Is that what the music industry has come down to?
Brilliant Web-Comic
Thursday, July 17th, 2008I don’t usually follow webcomics but this one’s caught my attention - its intelligent and has got amazing art at the same time.
The first one is about a girl and a guy on a train. Really, really cool. =]
The one on the main website is about a girl and a travelling circus. The art is so GOOD!! Go read it and tell me what you think!! Read it from the start 
Buy a life today!
Monday, June 23rd, 2008All for the low price of 2million dollars!
heh. You’ve probably already heard about this…if you haven’t you’ve been living under a rock. Anyway this guy is actually from my city Perth, and its been gathering a lot of news attention here…
so you know..if you have a spare 2.5 lying around, and are in need of a life, here ya go.