Electronic Battle Weapon

The Chemical Brothers began their 'Electronic Battle Weapon' series in 1996 so that fans and DJs could obtain the records that the duo had created with their own club sets in mind. Now ten strong, some of those tracks have since featured on official Chemical Brothers releases although, at the time of their issuing, they were very much part of an underground tradition of promotional material.

I wanted to propose a design for a hypothetical number eleven that would address a number of issues. Firstly there is the problematic nature of big selling artists maintaining those undergroud credentials. I put something in my report about the 'under-design' being used to suggest "a dependable realness" or what Redhead described as "a regime of truth" (Redhead 1993:121).

Particularly identified in subcultures that retain elements of exclusivity through the shared self-identification of being an outsider, there can be a rejection of anything approaching mainstream assimilation. In clubbing circles, this can manifest as a rejection of commercially-minded major labels. But the problem regarding a major label promoting material that it wants to be taken seriously outside of the Top 40-oriented demographic also related to my own desire to utilise QR-Codes within this project: as much as I love their pixelated nonsense and what they can do, they just seemed too corporate. So the idea here was to go back to a quote from producer Andrew Weatherall (who remixed The Chemical Brothers' first single, by the way) about the notion of the future as being this sleek, shiny techno vision. He believed that his 'future' aesthetic is one where the world is falling apart. I wanted to allow that to be used with this contemporary gadgetry. While also relating a proposal to the more underground design that is used to promote low budget, independent dance releases - the white label and the crudely applied stamp [figure 3]. So basically, after some deliberation, I wanted to revise the QR-Code as a deteriorated rubber stamped, monochromatic image across a 12" single.

For the vinyl itself, I went back to the laser-etching approach for a disc with one playable side. But the design was very much about going back to roots - albeit while acknowledging the year 2010 - so it additionally took layout inspiration from the pair's oldest 'Dust Brothers' releases through the Junior Boy's Own label. While it emulates the rubber stamp, given the size it is actually screenprinted using a pre-deteriorated digital image.

The B-side will feature a 'correctly' printed QR-Code directing users to a similarly rough looking Chemical Brothers microsite with all info, a MP3/WAV version, mailing list sign-up [for upfront details of new tracks] and a gateway to other currently available purchases including more general releases.

Dead Formats series

Bockingford Ex Rough 300gsm haunted by the ghosts of music past.
Set of three.
Edition of 20.

The Big Pink - Tapes

A format proposal for the Tapes compilation put together by The Big Pink for the K7 label. This takes 'Tapes' to its most literal conclusion yet it also uses the unplayable format to highlight how the majority of the compiled music doesn't even exist in a physical form. The package also attempts to create intrigue by secreting the information (download links, sleeve notes, etc) inside the spool-less cassette. The opening of the case with the supplied screwdriver forces the purchaser to invest effort and time into the download process culminating in a forced ritual aiming to heighten anticipation.

External text is laser-etched on card and internal text is printed on lightweight tracing paper. Initially there was a suggestion of incorporating a 'euro hole' for hanging the card as "product" but, later, it was felt that a more minimal approach captured some of the eeriness of the 'haunted' hypnotic tracks selected by The Big Pink's Milo Cordell. A key influence in the use of restrained aesthetic was Cordell's description of it as "the sound of America slowly dying" so, like some of the other deliverables for this semester's project, it tries to communicate a sense of 'the memorial'.


*Additional note: I should have mentioned that the dimensions of the pack was determined by the kind of media mail packaging that amazon uses for DVDs, books, etc. The hand-in will be presented in one of these. The additional layer is not just to post the item: it relates to Tal Brosh's comments about opening an item which, of course, influenced the deliverable itself.

Fabric series

I was thinking about the serial nature of music releases and how this contributes to collectability. So I considered the Fabric and Fabriclive catalogue which has been issued with some interesting artwork. A large amount of it has employed esoteric illustration/photography but, as a series, it does shift after a few releases; seemingly created as a smaller series before a new batch, employing an alternative style, arrives. However the promo versions (pictured) have eschewed the full artwork for a more consistent and simple colour-based series.

From my own perspective these reverse board slip cases have become a visual shorthand for the releases and I now recognise the one by Martyn as green, Buraka Som Sistema as yellow, Filthy Dukes as orange, etc. I decided to use Fabric's logo to devise an alternative code system that would work together visually in some way yet rely on a more complex form for recognition.

The dogtooth image Fabric uses immediately presents an opportunity for it to be used in a number of alternative ways as a tesselated pattern. Subsequently I created a few alternatives that would then be used in conjuntion with a circular form [owing to the fact that there is a relationship between the circle and the music format]. The idea is that these lightweight card options - perfect for mailing as part of a membership series - are issued with their respective download links as decorative objects. Alligned, multiples make up further shapes (that are dependent on their number and order) that I felt were almost sci-fi in their approximation of a representation of music. In fact one of the kids I was working with thought that it looked like the Death Star from Star Wars which I'm sure has something to do with the created illusion of a sphere.

More cuts

More lasered text

The letter forms, mentioned in the previous post, are probably clearer in this picture. (More variations of this to come.)

Immortal Melodies (dead)

I got around to lasering some other items today. I'll post more at some point. Anyway, I realised that the machinery's cutting funtion is different to the etching function in as much as the software traces the basic outlines of the jpeg. This also offered the option of altering the contours of the outlines. So I further simplified the serif stencil-friendly typeface I had used so that it was bolder and more 'custom'. You can see how it was used on the 'Immortal Melodies' 7" that finally had its date with destiny. The message reads "WHAT GOES AROUND".

Canvas etchings

The detail doesn't really come through on the photographs but these are a set of three works using laser etching on A3 canvas board. They're intended as perspectives on the idea of physical media and very much lead by the ideas in the report. One argues that the format isn't music, another looks at the tribal-like fetishism of certain formats and the third takes the hauntology route with its representation coming via a spectre-like ouija board.

All of them emulate the circular forms of popular playable media with grooves in the image of the 'locked' variety to suggest that either the format is going nowhere or is eternal. I wanted to use canvas as a way of echoing the reverance for formats and music packaging. To quote Peter Saville, to work with "the vernacular of fine art".

The final image additionally documents the process using plywood.

Ghosty 'Hauntology Collection' etching

'Immortal Melodies' [see last post] has temporarily avoided death by laser as I've been busy getting to grips with the etching capabilities of the machinery.

I had already created the various files I needed and saved them as jpegs. One was a variation on Ghostly International's logo that brought in a Victorian/Gothic Revival (or maybe slightly occult) aspect. The aesthetic idea came after considering this 'Hauntology' topic while also wanting something that would be a contrast to both the digital method of production and the smooth plastic.

The text might not be to everyone's taste as it does do the whole Brody-esque, 'blur' filter thing but I wanted to have a title that looked like it was an apparition. It was also a serif font before processes drained all the life out of it. I was also keen to use these as 'objects' - to collect as 'visual anchors' for digital re-release projects - rather than as playable media. Subsequently I lasered the vinyl grooves on the 10" format so that it would be decorative rather than functional.

It took a while to figure out the best settings for materials (this is evident in the final image) but I went on to try out a few more experiments which I'll document later.

Immortal Melodies

I bought this old 7" classical release and really needed to document it as tomorrow it has a date with a laser-cutter. It's a bit of a shame really as I love how it currently looks: from the layout, logo and use of colour through to the grubby old Sellotape holding the back together. The title - 'Immortal Melodies' - might suggest otherwise but, sorry little record, all good things must come to an end.

Eidolon #2

ALT/1977: We Are Not Time Travellers

Uploaded to: The Behance Network
Created: March 2010
By: Alex Varanese

"What would you do if you could travel back in time? Assassinate Marilyn Monroe? Go on a date with Hitler? Obviously. But here's what I'd do after that: grab all the modern technology I could find, take it to the late 70's, superficially redesign it all to blend in, start a consumer electronics company to unleash it upon the world, then sit back as I rake in billions, trillions, or even millions of dollars.

I've explored that idea in this series by re-imagining four common products from 2010 as if they were designed in 1977: an mp3 player, a laptop, a mobile phone and a handheld video game system. I then created a series of fictitious but stylistically accurate print ads to market them, as well as a handful of abstract posters (you know, just for funsies).

I've learned that there is no greater design element than the anachronism. I've learned that the strongest contrast isn't spatial or tonal but historical. I've learned that there's retro, and then there's time travel."

Ian Anderson on vinyl

“Vinyl records, like stupid 2mm high, 300mm wide holey plastic gods for the faithless, have a bizarre place in their adherents’ Midi-belief systems with collectors and neo-Luddite DJs expecting us non-believers/users to justify our own Babylonian misdemeanours for using, let’s face it, more conceptually profound mediums of music dissemination.”

Ian Anderson, Grafik, Issue #185, pg 61