Project Details:
Album covers are the designers' visual reactions to the persona and the sound/music of the artist whose
performances are embodied on a sound-recording. At their best, these combinations of word and image act
to both advertise and add depth to the art and craft that combine in a recording.
Identify an album cover that you feel is rich in meaning. You should understand what meanings the cover has, as well as how the visual elements relate to the music and artist that it identifies. Once you have formulated this understanding, your assignment is to create seven visual response-pieces to this album cover. Seven new album covers for the same musical album that exploit, modify, magnify, or repudiate the visual language at work in the original album cover (OAC). Each of your seven responses must perform a semiotic operation of the sort illustrated by each of the segments we covered in class this term. Once you have created these seven images, you will create a wordpress blog or tumblr to host the series. Choose seven out of the following ten operations to perform:
10. Junk and Culture
I chose the the cover for Skillet's Comatose. (There is a playlist at the top of the blog if you wish to listen to the songs at any time.)
I've picked my 7 operations to perform from the above list, and will be posting my results on this blog in later posts.
"Comatose", means, simply, the state of being in a coma.
Dictionary.com has 2 definitions for the word:
1. In a state of coma, affected with or characterized by coma.
2. lacking alertness or energy, torpid: comatose from lack of sleep, lethargic
Meaning behind the album cover:
John Cooper, the founder of the band, lead singer, and writer of many of the songs had this to say about the album's meaning:
Identify an album cover that you feel is rich in meaning. You should understand what meanings the cover has, as well as how the visual elements relate to the music and artist that it identifies. Once you have formulated this understanding, your assignment is to create seven visual response-pieces to this album cover. Seven new album covers for the same musical album that exploit, modify, magnify, or repudiate the visual language at work in the original album cover (OAC). Each of your seven responses must perform a semiotic operation of the sort illustrated by each of the segments we covered in class this term. Once you have created these seven images, you will create a wordpress blog or tumblr to host the series. Choose seven out of the following ten operations to perform:
1. The taxonomy of signs: icon, index, and symbol
2. Ways of meaning
3. Conceptual Structures
4. Visual Structures
2. Ways of meaning
3. Conceptual Structures
4. Visual Structures
5. Textual Structures
6. Matters of interpretation
7. Meaning-framing devices
8. Visual Storytelling
9. Official and unofficial language
6. Matters of interpretation
7. Meaning-framing devices
8. Visual Storytelling
9. Official and unofficial language
I chose the the cover for Skillet's Comatose. (There is a playlist at the top of the blog if you wish to listen to the songs at any time.)
I've picked my 7 operations to perform from the above list, and will be posting my results on this blog in later posts.
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| The original album cover. |
"Comatose", means, simply, the state of being in a coma.
Dictionary.com has 2 definitions for the word:
1. In a state of coma, affected with or characterized by coma.
2. lacking alertness or energy, torpid: comatose from lack of sleep, lethargic
Meaning behind the album cover:
John Cooper, the founder of the band, lead singer, and writer of many of the songs had this to say about the album's meaning:
"Comatose has many, many facets, but, basically what for people listening that don't know what Comatose means is 'in the state of being in a coma,' you know, simply. And I do that think in so many ways as humans that we are in a dream state... almost like the Matrix. we were in the Matrix when Neo kinda wakes up and he says his eyes hurt in the first movie and the Laurence Fishburne character says it's 'cause he's never really used them before. That's kinda, in a way, what Comatose is about. It's about, as a society, as humans on the earth, can you look and see how negative we've become, you know? And what the world has become? And all the violence that is happening, just the senseless violence, all the self gratification, selfishness, and self-loathing that it is occurring as a consequence of how self gratifying we've become as a people. You've got teen suicide rates up and, I mean, how many school shootings are gonna happen this year? It's basically as a people we've got to wake up and make this world a better place. And when you look at the artwork for the record, it's got this boy kind of staring up to the side in a kind of mesmerized position and when you open up the artwork you see that he's kind of looking at this jumbled mass of electronics, tvs, computers, and equipment. And it's basically saying that yeah, we've become this technological based monster and communication's easier, more ways to communicate than we've ever had before... but yet we're feeling more alone as the year goes by because we're not really reaching out to other people. And there is a social, kind of conscious, message to the record of making the world a better place and looking around saying, 'What can you do to make a difference in this world?' To bring hope to people who don't have hope? People that are feeling lonely... that you would bring them hope. Loving people that might hate you. So that's kind of what Comatose is about - it's a very broad message but it's kind of a wake up call, you know? Come out of all that selfishness and all the things that we think the world has to offer that, in the end, do not satisfy. And wake up out of that state and rise above it."
One question that remains, however, is what the boy is doing with the power cable in his hand. Did he unplug the TVs, trying to turn them off, or is he about to plug them in?
The important thing, though, is that it's what is connecting him to this TV monster, the current state of America.
One question that remains, however, is what the boy is doing with the power cable in his hand. Did he unplug the TVs, trying to turn them off, or is he about to plug them in?
The important thing, though, is that it's what is connecting him to this TV monster, the current state of America.
An alternate interpretation is that the boy has "pulled the plug" forcing either himself, or someone he knows out of a coma. (This can result in their death.)
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| Back of the album, showing the band and the pile of TVs. |
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| From the The Older I Get EP |
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| A wallpaper for the album. |
