Design I Like

After an unsuccessful search for a web video of the opening credits of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”, I am writing about one of the most underrated albums ever.
Tubeway Army’s “Replicas” Is not only a phenomenal record but the design of the cover is also amazing. It fully demonstrates the stark emptiness of the album and is intensely of the moment (the moment in this case being England in 1979). The title of the record refers to the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Phillip K. Dick. The book was later the basis of the film “Blade Runner”. The dystopian future referenced in all these works is plainly evident in the album art. Alone in a sparse room an androidish man is greeted with a skewed reflection of himself in a window. He looks frozen and mechanical. The light bulb in the room lies perfectly in the middle of the images but the unexpected heaviness of the right side of the frame makes this seem impossible. While there is a line down the middle of the image created by the window frame, my eye is drawn to the man standing on the right side to such an extent that I want him to have more space. The room is empty yet he feels crushed. The whole image feels stagnant yet off kilter. This feeling is added to by the way the text is crushed up into the top right corner.

Another way that the artist moves our eye around the frame is to reflect images from one side of the picture to the other. For instance, the top right lettering is reflected by the neon sigh coming through the window. The light fixture on the bottom right of the image draws a visual line up to the crescent moon visible in the window which in turn creates visual tension with the light bulb. All of these elements add to the solitude of the figure in the center of the frame. These feelings of isolation and futurism are the main themes of the album and come through perfectly in the stark cover art.

What I See

For this assignment I watched Herbert Sauper’s Darwin’s Nightmare. I had seen the film before but the first time I watch a film I prefer to just enjoy it and allow myself to be transported. With subsequent viewings I can dissect the method in which the filmmaker has affected me. One of the reasons I enjoyed Darwin’s Nightmare so much is the intimacy that the viewer and filmmaker feel with the subjects. There is definitely a feeling of sympathy for the poor of Tanzania but the sentiment does not degrade into pity. One way the filmmaker achieves this is through shot composition. Whenever his subject is outside Sauper uses a wide lens and frames them so that they are on one side of the composition and are visually surrounded by their environment. This way we may not judge the individual but are forced to see him as part of a larger whole. From the prostitutes to the street children and even the eastern European airplane pilots, everyone is part of a larger structure over which they are essentially powerless. The intimacy in the film is enhanced by the camera angles. Usually Sauper films people from either a slightly low angle or level as though we are standing in the room with them. In one of the films most powerful moments, the interview with the prostitute Eliza, the frame is almost entirely taken up by her face. Apparently while filming Sauper was also holding the candle that served as the scenes sole light source. One of the aspects of this film that I love is that even though many of the filming techniques are dictated by budget (or lack of) and the necessity of a crew of only one or two people, the shots still carry meaning and add to the story.

More AMMI images

Life mask of Marlon Brando


Animatronic Wolf

Star Wars figurine


Projectors (I like to throw filters on images)


Model from the movie Blade Runner


Medieval image viewer


Early motion study

American Museum of the Moving Image

I really enjoyed our trip to the Museum of the Moving Image. I had never been before and the history of broadcasting is something that I am very interested in. For me the most interesting was the rise of television as a medium made to appeal to women. When we look at early personal radios they seem to appeal to a manly aesthetic. The large carved wooden boxes are cast as solid unmoving centerpieces in a living room where after the work day the family can gather round and be entertained and enlightened. Many of the early televisions, however were designed to be used by women. They were designed to look like washing machines and were sometimes portable so that women would be comfortable taking them around the house as they performed their work. Women were the ones at home all day so they were initially targeted as a primary audience. I believe in some ways this is still the case with television programming. The programs and advertising targeted at women are still broadcast during the day today, but I think what makes the early televisions so remarkable is their significance as one of the first media that was versatile enough to target women during the day and men in the evenings.