GUERRA, Paula; OLIVEIRA, Ana; QUINTELA, Pedro (2015) - New Faces of Adoration: Elements of visual...

7/23/2019 GUERRA, Paula; OLIVEIRA, Ana; QUINTELA, Pedro (2015) - New Faces of Adoration: Elements of visual sociology through the album covers

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New Faces of Adoration:

Elements of visual sociologythrough the album covers

Paula Guerra, Faculty of the Arts and Humanities, Institute ofSociology, University of Porto | Griffith Centre for Cultural Research

Ana Oliveira, ISCTE, DINMIACET, University Institute of LisbonPedro Quintela, Faculty of Economics, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra


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1. Social Sciences, image, vision and visuality: a brief framework

2. Music and Image: the relevance of album covers or fascination with the art work

3. Sociologically interpreting the album covers: an analysis of Portuguese punk

album convers (20002014)

4. Conclusions and next steps

Summary


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From social sciences 'logocentrism' to 'ocularcentric' societies

Image as an object of

study and social

analysis


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More than 'mere' packaging

active contexts of cultural

mediation, playing a crucial role in

establishing relations of

communication and empathy

between producers, cultural

intermediary and listeners.

Album covers


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Information gathering

1. Phonographic records acquired by the project

2. Phonographic records from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s from

personal archives assigned to the project

3. Phonographic records resulting from research in virtual platforms

(Under Review, Bandcamp, Blogs - Rock no Liceu, DJ Billy -, among others) and

among respondents (by scanning the covers of theis personal records).


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Band's name

Record's name

CD, vinyl, cassete, digital

LP, EP, single, split,...

Label

Release year

Musical subgenre

Band's geographical origin

Quantitative Approach

analysis grid

General characterization


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Colour

(number of colours, dominant tones)

Lettering(font used - handwriting, typewriting; different font sizes; upper / lower case letters)

Logos

(from the band, from de label)

Types of image

(photography; cartoon/comics/illustration; collage)

Image composition

(dominant element; disposition in cover; combining and/or overlapping elements)

Quantitative Approach analysis grid

Graphic characterization:


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Brief description of the message

Definition up to 3 keywords to

summarize the message

Identification up to 3 types of symbols

used in the message construction

Content transmitted by album artwork

Quantitative Approach

analysis grid

Characterization of

album cover's

message


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Quantitative Approach analysis grid

550 Album covers analysed

37,64% Released between 2010 and 2014

64,36% K7 | 19,27% Vinyl

Colour |72,18% Black as dominant colour

Logos |96,36% Band's logo | 2,05% Label's logo

Lettering | 96,55% Typewriting

Dominant type of Image | 58,09 Illustration | 35,09% Photography

Dominant element's disposition |52,73% Dominant element occupies the entire cover

Album covers 2000 - 2014


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Black as dominant colour

Critical Point| Trial & Error,

2011

Ash is a Robot | Karma

Never Sleeps, 2013

Day of the Dead | Day of

the Dead, 2002


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Typewriting

Dokuga | Dokuga, 2007

The Parkinsons | Back to Life, 2012Subcaos | Metalpunk Invasion, 2010


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Representation of members of the

punk scene, band members, situations

to encourage direct action andrebellion against the system

Humorous and sarcastic illustrations

Illustration

Legion of the Sadists |

The Return of Semen

and Blood, 2011

Simbiose |

Fake Dimenson, 2009

Crise Total + Periferia SA | Split

Album, 2014


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Types of symbols

PxHxT | Motivation, 2013 Crepsculo Maldito | NecroMetal Punks, 2010

Ervas Daninas| Quatros Anos

de Resistncia a Herbicidas, 2004

11,74% Associated with music/sound(musical instruments, microphones,...)

11,05% Animals

10,02% Associated with dead(skulls, skeletons,cemeteries,...)


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Types of symbols

The Parkinsons | Streets of London, 2002

New Winds | Arm the Spirit, 2007

7,7% Associated with war/conflit(guns, bombs, sticks, daggers, warriors...)

6,91% Urban (buildings, streets,...)


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Content transmited by album

artwork

17icos| Piu , 2016

Seize the Day + Time X| Split EP,2000

16% An idea of belonging to the music

12,36% An idea of derision (contempt), non sense

10,91% An idea of deconstruction (to mock, to subvert)

Albert Fish| City Rats, 2012


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In this paper we seek to address the importance of image, vision and visuality in

contemporary societies, discussing how the social sciences have been historicallyrelate to this issue and arguing about the need to overcome the traditional

logocentrism of sociology, incorporating the image and other visual and

audiovisual elements in the analysis of contemporary societies.

We focused on the field of music and the relationships that historically popular

music and the music industry have established with the image and the visual,giving a particular attention to the importance of record covers over the years.

Since the mid-twentieth century that the record covers integrate the musicians

artistic project, helping to build a more complete picture of its position not only

in strictly musical terms, but also in political, cultural, social and aesthetic terms.

Particularly, in the case of urban music scenes such as punk, there has been agreat consistency, in graphic and visual terms, in the way punk record covers are

designed, which clearly points to the need for a more meticulous work in the

analysis of this type of subcultural contents.

Conclusions and next steps


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Our grid proposal for a sociological analysis of record covers matches different

methods of collecting and systematizing both quantitative and qualitativeinformation. We seek to illustrate here its potential by discussing some

preliminary results of the ongoing analysis of hundreds of Portuguese punk

records coversincluding CD, vinyl, cassette and digital formats.

In the future, we are interested in deepening this analysis, in at least two senses:

1. On the one hand, extending the time span of our analytic corpus, incorporatingpunk record covers released during the last quarter of the twentieth century and

also considering compilations released between the year two thousand and the

year two thousand and fourteen.

2. On the other hand, we consider that it is important to question the producers of

this kind of visual artifacts, questioning them and reflecting with them about themeaning of these images, as well as the context in which they were produced.

(i) who are the graphic designers of the Portuguese punk records;

(ii) what kind of relationship they have with the bands and/or record labels; and

(iii) under what conditions they developed this work and what where the

limitations, in terms of budget, technical and technological limitations.

Conclusions and next steps


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Thank you!

More information:

www.punk.pt/

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