RODAN "HAT FACTORY '93" ALBUM ART
In 2019, members of the 1990s indie band Rodan asked me to create a poster insert for their album “Hat Factory ‘93”.
The album is a newly-mastered collection of recovered tapes from a 1993 recording session at the Hat Factory, Baltimore,
consisting of early versions of tracks later seen on their first and only album “Rusty” (released in 1994 on Quarterstick Records).
I had collaborated on the art for “Rusty” too, so I looked for work of mine from the early 90s, to maintain a tone and connection to that time.
The result is this 3-part poster, included in the LP package. It features a drawing of mine from 1993 titled “Sedimentary Study” (left panel);
a photograph of water from a Kentucky creek taken near the home of Rachel Grimes (center panel);
and a composition of my photography and the handwriting of original Rodan member Jason Noble for the liner notes (right panel).
Click the gallery below for detailed views.
FILM GRIDS
A fundamental aspect of film and video is that the illusion of motion is created by many images (or ‘frames’)
playing back at a speed that tricks the eye. For example, a typical movie runs at 24 frames per second,
so in one minute of screen time, you’ve witnessed 1440 frames advancing fast enough to create fluid motion.
For this series, I considered the fact that films and videos are, in essence, long strings of individual images.
Thinking this way, I set about an experiment: to take certain films of mine, and re-formulate them
into two-dimensional prints, comprised of the individual frames of the film in question.
To accomplish this, I used a computer program to ‘export’ the frames of a film
as a long sequence of still images, rather than as a video file that plays back.
I then imported and arranged these stills (in chronological order) in Photoshop
into compositions that I could then make into prints.
To keep things manageable, I did not in fact use every single frame of a film I exported,
but created a ‘rule’ for each piece, such as using every 8th frame, or every 15th frame of a piece.
In the print 'APPROACH', for example, 1 out of every 30 frames of the original video was used, and made into a vertical print.
In other words, if the video is 6:20 in duration, and that results in 11,400 still images (6:20 x 60 sec/min x 30 frames/second),
then what you’re seeing in the print is 1/30th of its duration, or approximately 13 seconds of screen time.
