Before I write anything… Just watch this!
Lets face it – The Information Age basically ignited the demise of album art. With both being so intrinsically linked for many decades, it’s demise is still heavily mourned by both musicians and designers. People now prefer to have an imageless database of 846 kajillion artists they don’t know (or particularly like) at their disposal, rather than having a music collection that they have fully invested in – financially, emotionally and mentally.
In its hayday, design and music enjoyed a very public and very passionate love affair. If you have a look through any copiled lists of greatest album art, 99% of music/art on these lists are from the late 60’s to mid 80’s (I know I know – Nirvana’s ”Nevermind’ is from the 90’s!). This is mainly due to the early decades’ lack of visual outputs such as MTV, which meant that the album art was then the only means of visually expressing a musican’s work. In a way, as MTV strived to make music more visual, it killed the much-loved relationship between the audio and the package it came in.
But maybe we are about to see a resurgence….could something as revolutionary as what we see in the above video be a game changer for both the music and design industries? Could it help to reignite an interest in having a genuine music collection? The jacket sleeve for Q-Bert’s Kickstarter-funded double-LP Extraterrestria/GalaXXXian is being hailed as the world’s first interactive album cover; basically functioning like a tactile soundboard or a MIDI controller. The controller triggers sounds on Algoriddim’s DJay iPhone app via Bluetooth using Novalia’s Printed MIDI technology.
It’s pretty damn beautiful, from concept to completion!
I don’t know how the album sounds – I don’t need to – I still want one because of how it’s packaged. And that is a sentence I haven’t said in a long long time. And I love it.
Bye for now.
