Final album cover designs

Final album cover designs

Its quite hard trying to figure out on a final design from all of the experimentation... I need to decide on the right combination (or maybe create multiple different versions which discuss different things?) Where would the aura reside in that?? Would the aura be taken away by having different versions, so each one isn't as special? OR would it make each album cover more special because each one would be more original as there would be less of them? OR would either have any aura at all because they aren't the original analogue images and have been reproduced? It would discuss the aura of collecting and that perhaps there is more aura in the album covers because they are different from each other, desirable because there are less quantity of each design and as a collection they are complete and satisfactory and special.

This isn't going to be an album cover which contains a track list on the back... but an object that portrays 2 different pieces of artwork which tell their own bluegrass story. So the final piece is going to be an album of nothing of a band which doesn't exist so it won't have an album title and will be empty inside (metaphor).

This is the first design which came into my head. It is a very obvious portrayal of 2 different ways to show the deterioration of the band....
The front cover would be a neat portrayal of the instrumentation that is valued in bluegrass whilst the band blend into the background.
The back cover portrays the shattered mess as the band split. This image specifically limited me to create a 7" vinyl cover rather than a full album cover because it was created at the size of 7" when analogue and therefore cannot be blown up any more due to pixilation. Also it has been scanned multiple times and printed off multiple times already so the quality of the image has deteriorated.

This is portraying another way the band is disappearing, through opacity and digitisation. These 2 images contrast largely due to the fact that the front cover image is largely digitally edited compared to the more analogue ripped up back cover.

Here this cover discusses how the process, time and practicing involved (back cover) can leave only the music and instruments of the front cover. This shows how digitisation can keep an analogue process (lino block) alive as its own image in its own right

This also portrays how important process is and how I couldn't have created the linocut without the tracing paper. This links to how we couldn't have broken up if we weren't initially a band. I think the tracing paper is a striking image to show the disintegration of the band. The front cover is using bluegrass colours.

Final Album Covers

Study Task 10 - Evaluative Statement

Study Task 9 - Reflective Writing

Study Task 9 - Reflective Writing

1.       I chose to focus on bluegrass album covers so I sourced a range of them.

2.       I drew on the research from level 4 but expanded on it. I read about rejuvenation, collecting, as well as analogue and aura again

3.       I triangulated all the quotes I had gathered from my chosen theorists (Baudrillard, Berger, Benjamin, Rosenberg etc)

4.       I also triangulated writings of people connected to vinyl and analogue music and the technicalities of these forms

5.       I wrote a summary of my theoretical and technical quotes too so I really understood my research

6.       I started using song lyrics, photos and paraphernalia from my band for reference and source material

7.       I simplified the essay points in order to edit down what needed to be included in the album cover and establish my own criteria for what my practical would look like.

8.       The band broke up and I had to re-think how to tackle the project (could it be turned into a positive for my artwork?)

9.        Because of this I am experimenting with deconstruction, nostalgia, aura etc all the bluegrass themes but through my actual experiences  (sadness, loss, moving on etc) and how to apply this to authenticity

10.    Design the template and print a digitally reproduced record cover

Study Task 8 - Action Plan

My action plan:

Primary Research	Identify, collect, record and evaluate visual material from the following sources: Found extensive original sources (album covers) Using song lyrics from my band set list Photos from my band performing/photoshoots
Secondary research	Draw, photograph, record and develop my own visual material through the following activities: Photocopying, editing, selecting album covers from originals and putting in journal Selecting and refining choice of song lyrics and sorting into themes Drawing from original photos of my band Annotating album covers (visual analysis)
Media & Processes	Visually and practically explore my subject using the following media and processes: Drawing Collage (using collated objects and paraphernalia)
Context	Contextualise, reference, analyse my work in relation to the following practitioners/disciplines: Baudrillard (Collecting) Benjamin (Aura) Berger (Experience) Rosenberg (Bluegrass)

Feedback suggestions:

• Can tell you have spent a lot of time of the lino cuts ( like the time you spend rehearsing and practicing with the band...)
• Maybe trying printing the lino-cut over ripped up photos of the band
• Could photograph/drape your prints in bigger scapes...from a distance? see how it fits into different environments? (music shops, a skip because broken up)
• Visit record stores for contextual research
• Have a big VOID stamp on top to show the band no longer exists?
• Are there any bluegrass museums you could visit?
• Try and destroy the prints in different ways? (bury it, leave in the rain, tap dance over it)
• Photoshop the band out of the photographs? just leave yourself?

Study Task 7 - Reading of Extended Essay

Study Task 7 - Reading of Extended Essay

The extended essay I chose was by Daniel Gilmartin titled 'To what extent are digital design tools a threat to the modern day Illustrator and the value of Illustration'. I chose this because it links to my exploration of analogue and digital technologies although it was interesting to learn that his bibliography only contained Walter Benjamin in common to mine.

Quality of Research

• I thought that he had researched a lot of different things, many sources filling 2 pages
• The sources he had researched contained a range of books, films, blogs and websites

Line of Argument

• Theories were clearly divided into 2 chapters and had headings
• The introduction defined all of the key concepts and explained what they meant
• The clarity of each paragraph could have been more direct with an outlining sentence?
• I liked that the conclusion ended with a question however there were new quotes and points brought into it rather than just summarising the developed arguments and points
• The essay did answer and explore the statement in the title

Triangulation

• The was lots of big clumps of quotes which weren't refined or embedded within the paragraph
• There wasn't much paraphrasing

Tone of Voice

• The essay was written with very formal and academic language
• Lots of long sentences with lots of clauses

Linking

• The first chapter analysed information about 'the illustrator' and then the second chapter linked this back to aura and authenticity...broken down but also linked nicely
• The case studies were explained and explored but were also linked back to the theories explored in the first half of the essay

Study Task 5 - Practical Approach

Practical Proposal

What do you intend to investigate:

• A variety of bluegrass album covers
• The themes behind the imagery
• The visual language of the covers

How theorists, writers, case studies and quotes triangulate (backbone):

• 'Attempts of young people today to shed their urban surroundings and get back to their more traditional surroundings'
• 'The early albums long out of print'
• 'Reaffirmed the traditional values associated with bluegrass music' Lonesome 'is to bluegrass music what blue is to the blues'
• 'It has been a professional and commercial music from its beginning'
• 'Bluegrass seems symbolic of responses to outside pressure'
• (Bluegrass: A History)
• 'Social existance'
• 'Permits his creatures to live again'
• (Paul Valery)
• 'Personal possession'
• 'Divested of its function and made relative to a subject'
• 'Envisaging a set or series of each item'
• (Jean Baudrilliard)
• 'The aura includes a sensory experience of distance between the reader and the work of art'
• 'The reproduced work of art is completely detached from the sphere of tradition. It loses the continuity of its presentation and appreciation'
• 'The work of art can be disconnected from its past and brought into new combinations by the reader'
• (Andrew Robinson)
• 'Record covers are often as much a part of the whole work as the songs' 
• 'I'd pin them up in plastic sleeves, as works of art' (George Shaw)
• 'I'm proud of the records on my wall; its a way of managing the world of popular culture' (George Shaw)
• 'I bought records just because of how they looked' (Juergen Teller)
• 'The music and the images go totally hand in hand' (Juergen Teller)
• (The Art on your Sleeve)

What activities do I need to do (experiences/visits/materials):

• Need to decode/visually analyse a variety of different bluegrass album covers to determine they key visual information
• Collect photographs of my bluegrass band; ones of us performing and take some of rehearsing (details of the different instruments and musicians)

End product vision:

1. Chose a few specific covers from different to reinterpret, modernise, bring back to life?
2. Create an album cover for my bluegrass band using the old visual language? perhaps singles covers for a few songs (focus)?

• Created with fully analogue media? (collage, pen, paper cut, print, paint, texture)
• Final outcome = an album cover/ digital reproduction of the album cover?

Sketchbook:

• Sketch imagery of the Bean Train Gang performing and rehearsing
• Develop ways to visualise themes; alcohol, landscape, religion, death/depression, home, perverts/dark side

Study Task 4 - Introduction

Question: 

'Defining the concept of aura by applying it to the collecting and analysing of bluegrass album covers.'

Found out:

1. Can listen/see/make art everywhere-very accessible
2. Bringing artists and culture back to life
3. Collecting things for specialness, vintage, identity
4. Uniqueness, aura, authenticity
5. Reproduction vs analogue
6. Key themes of bluegrass songs and covers
7. Lack of women in bluegrass
8. Modern Vs Old covers (hard to find, passed down)

                                                     
Core texts:

• Paul Velery 'The conquet of ubiquity'
• Jean Baudrillard 'System of collecting'
• Andrew Robinson 'Art, Aura and Authenticity
• Walter Benjamin 'The work of Art in the age of mechanical reproduction'
• Phil Taylor ' Analogue VS Digital in the creative process'
• David Douglas 'The work of Art in the age of digital reproduction'
• John Berger 'Ways of seeing'
• David Greenwald 'The art on your sleeve'
• Heidelberg 'The Thing'
• Neil V. Rosenberg 'Bluegrass A History'

Key quotes/Triangulation:

1.  'can all self publish with ease' DD 'the days of pilgrimage are over' JB 'will exist wherever someone with a certain apparatus happens to be' PV
2.   'closest one can get to the artists intension' DG
3.  'quantity is in fact activated by quantity' (Callot) JB 'manages to literally outline himself through his collection' (Freud) JB 'intimate, and perhaps authentic, relationship' PT 'urge grows stronger to get hold on an object at close range' WB
4. 'aura resides not in the thing itself but in the originality of the moment' DD 'although it is hard to use in medium with inconsistent results, the desire for the "authentic" o medium is driving the resurgence in interest'  PT 'a wave breaking on a beach' DD 'the uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from it being imbedded in the fabric of tradition' WB
5. 'the reproduced art is completely detached from the sphere of tradition' AR 'no longer a clear distinction between original and reproduction in virtually any medium' DD 'authenticity cannot be reproduced' AR
6.  'a culture that did not encourage women to follow their own muses' 'i couldn't really accept her voice as a bluegrass instrument' thebluegrasssituation.com

Practical way to explore:

Something to do with creating and album cover and a reproduction of the album cover. Linked to bluegrass, drawing on primary evidence from my bluegrass band.


OPENING

This essay will explore the idea of aura and originality through an analysis and
discussion of a selection of bluegrass album covers. The main concerns explored in
the essay are aura, time and collecting.. The topic was chosen as a way of
exploring a creative practice in a bluegrass band more theoretically, at the same
time as linking this exploration to existing analogue interests that emerge from
illustration practical work.
The selection of album covers chosen are used as visual examples to discuss theory
around. They also tell a narrative of bluegrass in their composition. The themes
raised in the narrative of the album covers can be broken down and explored
through the discussion between reproduction and analogue, considering uniqueness
and authenticity and how increased accessibility to albums themselves has
impacted on this. Another theme is why people have the desire to collect, and is
this perhaps an attempt to bring culture back to life? The visual and aural themes
of the bluegrass genre are unpicked thorough exploring a series of traditional songs
that appear in the musical practice discussed here. In addition, these themes are
also discussed from a historical and critical visual analysis perspective using, for
example, Rosenberg’s Bluegrass A History (XXXX). Another important text is XXXX
by XXXX (XXXX).
Aura and analogue elements of reproduction will be discussed thought he writings
of Jean Baudrillard – who discussed collecting – and Walter Benjamin – who helped
to define the concept of aura and began challenging it. Douglas’s writings on aura,
from a contemporary perspective, are also used to unpick the themes. The culture
and aesthetic of the bluegrass genre, and the enormous significance of landscape
and place, are portrayed in the film XXXX by XXXX (date) that is also referred to in

this essay.