Archives - April 2008


Album Artwork for the Digital Age

Print is Dead? Like many (most?) music lovers, the artwork always used to be a core part of the album experience…which has largely fallen by the wayside as I listen to music pretty much exclusively digitally – with my CDs and 12″ sitting on the shelves, or boxed up out of the way. I indulge my love of album artwork from a distance, via Sleevage and the like.

My other half was showing me the design treatments for the new album, which prompted reflection that it was a shame that the finished design would end up either unseen – or only briefly glimpsed – by many; who either download their music digitally, or then rip the CD to mp3 and shelve the CD to gather dust (like me).

Although you can search iTunes using artwork, the small compressed imagery is clearly no comparison to the richness of a 12″ sleeve (and to a lesser extent the CD case). Despite fantastic efforts by artists like Beck to innovate in their use of the physical product (offering users stickers to design their own covers, and upload their own designs for the second pressing) Wired described album artwork as a “dying art form … [which] has been dying a slow death for decades”. So it’s thrilling to see a glimmer of hope that album artwork is beginning to be redefined for the digital age.

More and more designers have been exploring more varied digital techniques to bring the album artwork to life – such as DVD-style menus and liner-note fly-throughs (as on Gnarls Barkley’s latest release). Death Cab for Cutie’s latest release on iTunes in the US includes a $3 package of a digital booklet, bonus tracks, and “making of the album” videos. Nice start, but I’d hope that digital artwork & extras would be a standard inclusion – artwork used to come as part and parcel of the physical release, not a paid-for extra.

In Japan, Warner have been trialling their Wamo service, allowing mobile phone users to access a bundle including ringtones, videos and artist interviews as well as the album tracks. Better.

However Radiohead, once again, have really attempted to embrace the digital medium, with the widget which accompanied the now-infamous In Rainbows (which also featured several pots of gold)

I say attempted, because as pointed out at Sleevelessness, it’s a bit clunky. But the spirit is there, and it’s a good first step in trying to realise the digital potential for artwork to complete the full album experience.

And a note to Discovery, realising the potential for digital artwork doesn’t mean insane animated gifs.

[ via PSFK ]

April 29, 2008 in Art & Design | Permalink | Leave a Comment

Lofi

[photo courtesy of Flickr, since I can’t find my camera USB cable for love nor money, so looks like I’ll need to buy a bloody new one….and in any case my lists and notes aren’t nearly that neat!]

Iain’s posted about his experience of Mental Detox Week, uploading his paper notes to his blog to spend as little time as possible in front of the screen.

Which got me thinking that as much as I love, adore and embrace new technology, there’s nothing like pen and paper.

I don’t feel like my thoughts and tasks are organised until they’re written down…and yes I’m a typical wanky planner toting around a Moleskine. I’ve tried experimenting with using Outlook Tasks, using umpteen rules and categories to adhere strictly to GTD (and yes, I know GTD can work perfectly well with pen and paper), online tools like Remember the Milk or Ta-Da….but ultimately I always come back to a good old-fashioned, no-frills pen-and-paper to-do list.

There’s something wonderfully tangible about committing something to paper. Even the phrase ‘commit to paper’ has a definite sense of being concrete. Now, that’s not to say that paper = firm and digital = ephemeral, but I think there’s something in it…

All the while we voraciously adopt hi-tech, digital applications and technology, we’re also continuing to embrace the low-tech, traditional and classic methods of doing things as we’ve always done them. It’s not that we can simply divide ourselves into technophiles and luddites – frequently you’ll find the most technosavvy digital native firmly embracing the lofi approach as well.

The Hipster PDA.
Moleskine Hacks.
Hack your day & increase productivity by ditching your PDA for Index Cards + Google Calendar.

Sometimes technology makes our life easier. But sometimes the lofi approach is the simplest and best.

April 23, 2008 in Technology | Permalink | Leave a Comment

My new theme song

[ brought to my attention by the ever fabulous meg ]

April 17, 2008 in Music | Permalink | Leave a Comment

Information Visualisation is a Medium

Speaking to a mate who recently attended Etech, as always it sounds like they had some amazing speakers and sessions – one of the many I’d have loved to have attended was Eric Rodenbeck’s talk on Information Visualisation is a Medium

Eric is the founder & CD of Stamen Design, who’ve been responsible for the likes of Swarm and Stack for Digg, as well as the awesome Cabspotting

The focus of the talk was on the aggregation and visualisation of data & information; and how the concept works both for Stamen and in a wider cultural context – with the central point that they consider information visualisation to be a medium in and of itself, not just a technique.

They highlighted their work for Trulia – a property search, information and aggregation site – which I think is a powerful example of their point in practice.

In this case their Trulia Hindsight project merges historical property data with a “heat map” indicating the hottest properties, with all manner of extra features enabling users to explore how areas have become developed over the years, compare city to city and more. Ultimately the point is that the visualisation of the information enables users to explore and interact, rather than merely search the data in a very linear process. Equally, neither is it just a pretty aggregation of data – visually stunning, but little more. Simply put, it frames the information in such a way as to be interesting and useful.

Visualisation isn’t thus a means to an end, I think it’s a fascinating – and growing – medium in its own right…. or as Jose Luis de Vicente puts it:

“Data visualisation is a cross-discipline which uses the vast communicative power of images to offer a comprehensible explanation of the relationship among meaning, cause, and dependence that can be found among large abstract masses of information generated by scientific and social processes….[combining] strategies and techniques from statistics, graphic design and interaction and computer analysis to create a new communication model more suitable for clarification in the emerging Age of Complexity…..The analysis of the relationship between data and their visual representation has transcended its scientific origin and can be seen as a language with great potential in a context where data bases are fast becoming…an influential cultural form”

Communications are so often based on the premise of taking selected nuggets of info or data as a hook to engage people, since that the data itself is frequently considered of little interest or use to the consumer. Yet when the data or information itself serves as interesting and useful communication in its own right, which invites active participation, isn’t that ultimately more powerful and rewarding?

[ via we make money not art - and in particular this fantastic post on tracing the aesthetics of data ]

April 15, 2008 in Communication | Permalink | Leave a Comment
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