So i havent Blogged for over a week and its been a busy 1. in reverse order i have had my first Professional Practise brief come through for LA Band AVi Buffalo, for their gig at Kilby Court in salt lake city for 26/10/10 so a short deadline. they now have the final piece which is at the top of this page.
Working to such a tight deadline with all the other stuff im working has been challenging but good to re apply myself working under pressure.
disciplining myself to go back to sketch work( i will add once images are scanned) has been a rude awaking and a good lesson for the future to get back into working this way.
i am working backwards on concepts in my sketch book for this project as there are some ideas which i need to develop for alternatives and also i want to develop a piece of work for screen print. The fact that the deadline is upon me meant i had to put that work on hold and develop my ideas on-screen liaising with my contact, it meant pushing the aeroplane concept forward. the idea came to me when i was researching the word Buffalo and found some old drawing of a ww1 buffalo fighter plane, so i thought of developing the blueprint idea.This hasn’t been without it problems, ive had software issues with Photoshop deciding last-minute to spit its dummy. however ive pushed myself and got the work in on time.
Im looking forward to spending this back time developing the sketch book work and forcing myself to draw once more and really explore creating a type face of my own.
2 – dissertation. or shall i say a baptism of fire. being knowledgeable on atopic and being able to talk lucidly about your subject is one thing, but writing about is another. anyhow some late nights, beers, coffees, conversations cigarettes i have now narrowed my topic to a question and even-handed in a proposal ahead of time.
Thats not to say you should rest on your laurels, for example you may think , great its written, its handed in but you still need to know your on the right path , so another sleepless night ensued worrying about if i would have to redo the whole thing and relive the stressful week all over. Luckily i managed to get on point and have my topic cleared, so know by next friday i will submit 500 word introduction, so im guessing another busy week ahead. i think having teh deadline with the poster brief only crammed my brain.
here is my proposal:
The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between art and music especially the relationship between album art and recorded content.
Firstly this research will explore the relationship between art and music.
Has it always existed? How has it been important in the past?
How does album art add something to the music?
As a musician and artist, I still feel the relationship is still an important one. However, today as music exists ever more digitally (MP3s), and with the rise of X Factor and similar generic pop orientated programmes, I feel the relationship is growing ever more fragile. Despite this, the fact that iTunes and similar digital music media still rely on album art, albeit in a different way, suggests that the link is not yet broken.
We still see there is a need to relate an image with a recording.
In the past there has been strong links between art and music. For example, The Smiths’, Meat is Murder. Meat is Murder features a cover still by filmmaker Emile de Antonio’s “In the Year of the Pig” (1969) and features a Vietnam soldier. The word Meat is Murder was added as slogan to side of the soldier helmet in the place of the original wording “MAKE LOVE NOT WAR” which features on the cover of the original film.
Similarity was drawn between the Vietnam campaign and Morrissey’s stout vegetarianism drawing on the Vietnam reference. The package was layed out by Caryn Gough who appears historically throughout The Smith’s back catalogue as art director / collaborator. The album is described as Morrissey’s most politically influenced and the striking image of the GI on the cover draws strong reference to Morrissey’s takes on society at the time.
More recently, William Schaff’s visual interpretation of Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy is a good example of the strong link between art and music. Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy is a conceptual musical piece, which reflects on the late singer songwriter Tim Hardin, most well known for his appearance at The Woodstock festival. The albums honesty is almost biographical in telling of Hardin’s life and highlights his struggle with love, music and addiction. The album opens with the title track Black sheep boy , a cover of Hardin’s song by the same name whereby Hardin recognises within himself the issues which are explored by Will Sheff of Okkervil River.
Rhode Island artist William Schaff who appears throughout Okkervil River’s back catalogue produces the album’s cover and packaging.
Schaff traditionally implies his work to represent his reaction to the Holocaust. Schaff’s known work has included album covers for God Speed You Black Emperor and Death Vessel. Schaff interprets Will Sheff’s (Okkervil River’s front man) lyrics almost pictorially laying emphasis to the dark times of Hardin’s past which is almost blatantly portrayed through Sheff’s lyrics, given that you know a little of the history behind the album. With that said even with little understanding you can certainly make a relationship between art and recorded content.
We also can’t forget The Beatles’, Sgt Pepper, Pink Floyd’s, The Wall and Bruce Springsteen’s, Greeting from Asbury Park.
To answer my question, I am going to ask an unsigned or up and coming band who are about to embark on producing a record with sleeve and liner notes to find out if the relationship between their music and the album artwork is something they have considered.
Research Objectives:
- To explore the relationship between music and album art
- Does album artwork add anything to the musical message?
- To see if it is still important and has its place
- Will we still recognize album art as an important communication tool within the music industry in the future?
Research Methodology.
- Interview a band that is creating an album to discover their relationship between the music and the artwork.
- Contact 3 bands that have released an album and interview them about the process behind the creation of their album sleeve and the relationship to their music.
- Read existing articles and books that explore the relationship between art and music.
Resources, e.g. galleries, museums to be visited, journals, articles etc.
- Listen to and understand the recording artist’s work, analyse musical content, structure, production, supporting stories and history to expose the reasons and concepts behind the recorded work.
- Research the artist commissioned to design sleeve cover and their relationship with the band.
- Research corporate artist to see if the same sensibilities are employed or are the artists detached from the musician and work with just a title or standardised record company brief in order to complete the product.
- Revisit known articles on chosen album sleeve.
- Research the Internet to see if any articles have been published on the subject.
First Bibliography (sources, articles, books, journals looked at so far for the proposal)
Daniel Johnston [Web page].
<http://www.hihowareyou.com/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
DiFonzo, N. (2006). Seriously Bad Album Covers. XXXX: New Holland Publishers Ltd
Draper, J. (2008). A Brief History of Album Covers. XXXX: Flame Tree Publishing
Evans, E. (2010). The Art of the Album Cover. XXXX: Chartwell Books, Inc.
Goddard, S. (2006). The Smiths Songs That Saved Your Life. Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Limited.
Gregory, J. (2008, August 17). Designer Peter Saville: ‘The Album Cover Is Dead’. Gigwise.
<http://www.gigwise.com/news/45430/designer-peter-saville-the-album-cover-is-dead>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
IMDB, In the Year of the Pig [Web page].
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064482/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Mark Pedini [Web page].
<http://www.artsplosion.blogspot.com/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Okkervil River [Web page].
<http://www.okkervilriver.com/band.php>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Rock Explosion [Web page].
<http://www.rock-explosion.com/catpage5.html>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Wikipedia, In the Year of the Pig [Web page].
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064482/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
William Schaff [Web page].
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/samsa1973/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Second Bibliography (sources, articles, books, journals identified but yet to be read)
Album Art is NOT dead. You Remember That.com.
<http://www.yourememberthat.com/media/9626/Album_Art_Is_NOT_Dead-_An_Interview_With_Artist_Ioannis/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Album Cover [Web page].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Album_cover>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Album Cover Art [Web page].
<http://www.album-cover-art.org/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
AskMe AskMe AskMe.com [Web page].
<http://www.askmeaskmeaskme.com/meat.htm>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Kerley, P. (2010, April 7). Audio slideshow: Storm’s sleeves. BBC Entertainment.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8605975.stm>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Northern Planner, Thoughts on Planning and Life from the North of England.
[Blog].
<http://joymachine.typepad.com/northern_planner/2007/09/the-smiths-albu.html>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
Sleevage [Web page].
<http://sleevage.com/>. Accessed 12th October 2010.
so the next step is to get this thing underway.
Other news.
My books for my dissertation have arrived along with the Sketch book for my 1st Negotiated study ( The Sketch Book Tour) arrived today so im looking forward to getting al this under way.
professional Practise seems to be coming in nicely with another one today.
so far i have .
Band Merchandise
Rework of a business identity
Layouts for a recipe Book
Corporate , flyers, posters , etc for my day job.
Promotional material for a DJ.
Next on the agenda is a conference in Bristol for The Bristol Natural Consortium where by im facilitating group work for the BioBlitz event, here i get to meet Sir David Attenborough so exciting times.
Then its off to Berlin on teh study trip where i will get the sketch book project underway.
