Study Task 1

Interests/Practice: 

• Relationship between music and visual art
• Relevance of cover art in the digital age
• How has the role of cover art been changed by streaming/ the loss of the physical cover?
• Qualities of LP's that have been lost as digital production takes over.
• Marketing music in the digital age
• Semiotics in album artwork and it's importance.

Key Words/Phrases/Concepts/Theories:

• Streaming, Genre, Individualism, Originality, Brand, Style, Stories, Vinyl, Sentiment, Protest, Iconography, Cover Art, Album Art, Colour Theory, Musician, Semiotics, Polysemy 

Books/Journals/Phrases/Articles/Practitioners/Examples:

• 'Sonic Graphics: Seeing Sound' - Thames & Hudson (Book)
• 'Designing for Music' - Spencer Drate & Roger Dean (Book)
• 'Rhetoric of the Image' - Roland Barthes (Text)
• 'Music in the Digital Age: The Emergence of Digital Music & its Repercussions on the Music Industry' - Sadie A. Stafford (Essay)
• 'Semiotics for Beginners' - Daniel Chandler (Essay)
• 'Semiotics & Visual Representation' - Brian Curtin (Journal)
• 'Influence of Musical Semiotics & Aesthetics on Music-Intermedia Arts' - Július Fujak (Article)
• 'The Importance of the Album Cover' - Luke Hinz (Article)

Primary Research Methods:

• Looking through books/online journals & texts
• Finding documentaries or interviews
• Looking at current and past practitioners. Comparing and relating their work in this particular context.
• First hand research through visiting record shops and sampling the design and its connection to the music inside. 
• Discussion with people who have strong opinions/knowledge on this particular subject. Using this to try and gauge peoples understandings of how the industry is shifting and progressing and what their stance on this is.

Processes/Techniques:

• The kinds of processes and techniques I intend to use towards the development of the visual side of my investigation are not yet fully clear to me. 
• One way I may intend to explore my idea is through the recreation of past album covers, and potentially attempting to incorporate qualities of the physical album into todays online music marketing process. 
• Could be anything from, digital production/traditional print methods/animation/photography