Fake CDs

This was an idea I wanted to try while exploring this idea of unplayable media as a 'visual anchor' for music: replica CDs.

Compact discs particularly interest me as there is plenty of speculation regarding their demise while, at the same time, they just don't have the cult status of vinyl records or even the cassette tape. Subseqently their form hasn't been championed or even investigated in quite the same way. The standard jewel case additionally comes in for some stick (particularly from a design perspective), so I'm also keen to do some work that uses them as a starting point. This is probably the 'Comic Sans Effect' at work: at trait that my colleagues might recognise where I'm likely to jump to the defence of something which is (perhaps justifiably) maligned. Usually to annoy Dave. ;)

Anyway, these rather lo-fi approximations of the 5"/127mm diameter CD [which could be sanded to lose some of the roughness] may be interesting to screen print in a similar way to the LoAF releases referenced earlier. I want to try some using other materials too but, for now, I like the idea of the ones made from the mail packaging that the other 'proper' formats arrived in.

Another influence behind these is the work by Robert Brownjohn that appears on the cover of the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed album: where a stack of records is swapped for a tyre, a clock face, pizza and a cake [the latter apparently decorated by a then unknown Delia Smith]. (Macedonia's Robert Gligorov has since touched on something similar with his Gramophone Amarillis.)

Wooden "music"

Following on from the last post, I thought I'd gather together some examples of music formats or hardware replicated in other, supposedly unplayable materials. The following are all wood interpretations with the first being the cover for The Wire's Undercurrents book which was designed by Non-Format (whose record covers I previously referenced).

Images two and three document the 2008 work of artist Elisa Strinna as featured on Inti Gueurrero. In a fashion, these do actually play.

"A series of thin slices of wood are cut from different types of tree trunks, which are later sanded down to a certain thickness as to resemble LP vinyls. When played, the trunk’s rings, which mark the life cycles of the tree, are translated into sound. The abstract sound produced is an utterance of the cultural translation of nature’s History"

Image four is a heat transfer on wood that's sold via, U.S. interiors site, Bughouse and number five is the artwork for µ-Ziq's 1995 album, In Pine Effect. The final three pictures feature the various formats for Money Mark's Brand New By Tomorrow from 2007 although the wooden items themselves were created in 2003 by Todd St. John and Gary Benzel of Hunter Gatherer.