Commercial recordings - CDs, LPs - are familiar objects. However, discussion about them has often attempted to conceal the fact that, as communicating objects, recordings pose special problems due to the fact that they unite text, image, and sound in a material commodity. This thesis examines the role of the visual in the production, circulation and use of recordings. The album cover is the primary category of study, with an emphasis on its functioning in relation to the recording as a sonic and material commodity. The label ECM, a German company which has been producing recordings since 1969, provides the main focus in this analysis. The basis of this investigation lies in the questioning of the assumptions and categories that have historically guided the activity of cover design and the discourse about it. Traditionally, recordings have been understandably seen primarily as sound-carriers; their visual aspects, even when celebrated, are most often relegated to a peripheral status, despite the fact that in certain contexts the importance of the visual can overwhelm that of sound. The usual hierarchical opposition between these elements is here questioned through an examination of both the marketing of recordings and their circulation and use. ECM provides a pertinent case through which such questions can be elaborated. Its visual marketing strategies can be characterised in terms of a desire for difference. ECM's attempt to set itself apart has resulted in a "look" which rejects many conventions. It has also resulted in a complex, conceptual group of visual strategies. In its particular use of landscape photography, blank space, and gestural markings, ECM constructs ideas of space which relate to the potential for performativity and creativity. Through the combination of these strategies, the label deemphasises creative personality of the musical performer and emphasises the space occupied by the looker/listener. In doing this, it also questions the traditional boundaries between music and the visual. ECM's covers cause these categories to become indistinct and allow new conceptions of the recording as a material commodity to emerge. One effect of this is a construction of the apprehender's subjectivity that fails to fit within the marketplace's traditional categories. The thesis considers how the visual has been implicated in more concrete processes such as the negotiation of taste and practices of consumption and use. The niche that ECM attempts to carve out for itself is considered in relation to the tension in the marketplace between the desire for distinction and the recording as a massproduced commodity.

Commercial recordings - CDs, LPs - are familiar objects. However, discussion about them has often attempted to conceal the fact that, as communicating objects, recordings pose special problems due to the fact that they unite text, image, and sound in a material commodity. This thesis examines the role of the visual in the production, circulation and use of recordings. The album cover is the primary category of study, with an emphasis on its functioning in relation to the recording as a sonic and material commodity. The label ECM, a German company which has been producing recordings since 1969, provides the main focus in this analysis. The basis of this investigation lies in the questioning of the assumptions and categories that have historically guided the activity of cover design and the discourse about it. Traditionally, recordings have been understandably seen primarily as sound-carriers; their visual aspects, even when celebrated, are most often relegated to a peripheral status, despite the fact that in certain contexts the importance of the visual can overwhelm that of sound. The usual hierarchical opposition between these elements is here questioned through an examination of both the marketing of recordings and their circulation and use. ECM provides a pertinent case through which such questions can be elaborated. Its visual marketing strategies can be characterised in terms of a desire for difference. ECM's attempt to set itself apart has resulted in a "look" which rejects many conventions. It has also resulted in a complex, conceptual group of visual strategies. In its particular use of landscape photography, blank space, and gestural markings, ECM constructs ideas of space which relate to the potential for performativity and creativity. Through the combination of these strategies, the label deemphasises creative personality of the musical performer and emphasises the space occupied by the looker/listener. In doing this, it also questions the traditional boundaries between music and the visual. ECM's covers cause these categories to become indistinct and allow new conceptions of the recording as a material commodity to emerge. One effect of this is a construction of the apprehender's subjectivity that fails to fit within the marketplace's traditional categories. The thesis considers how the visual has been implicated in more concrete processes such as the negotiation of taste and practices of consumption and use. The niche that ECM attempts to carve out for itself is considered in relation to the tension in the marketplace between the desire for distinction and the recording as a massproduced commodity. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

CAPES / A pesquisa buscou investigar o Tropicalismo (1967-1968) e analisar de que forma sua linguagem gráfica repercutiu nas capas de disco de 1969 a 1978, ou seja, nos dez anos seguintes ao término oficial do movimento. A dissertação procurou pensar nas características estéticas e culturais presentes nos projetos gráficos, considerando o contexto histórico desses anos, as propostas da canção tropicalista, tal como as influências entre as sonoridades e visualidades do período. Para isso, foram estudadas as capas de disco do Brasil da segunda metade dos anos de 1960, com ênfase na Tropicália. Foram selecionadas dez capas de discos do período posterior, com o intuito de estabelecer comparações e discutir as principais referências. Foi desenvolvida uma análise visual com base na semiótica peirceana - a partir da proposta de Martine de Joly (2006) - de capas de eixos fonográficos diversos de 1969 a 1978, apontando de que maneira construiu-se um diálogo entre o design tropicalista e as peças selecionadas. A partir disso, foi possível verificar que o Tropicalismo teve significativa importância para a criação e implantação de uma nova linguagem visual no design brasileiro e influenciou, em diferentes aspectos, o desenvolvimento de capas de disco da década posterior. / The research sought to investigate the Tropicalismo (1967-1968) and analyse how its graphic language reflected in the album covers from 1969 to 1978, in other words, in the ten years following the official end of the movement. The dissertation attempted to think about the esthetic and cultural characteristics present in graphic projects, considering the historical context of those years, the proposals of the Tropicália’s songs and the influences between sounds and visualities of period. Thus, the research was studied the album covers of Brazil in the second half of the 1960s, with an emphasis on Tropicália. Ten album covers of the period subsequent were selected, to compare and discuss the main references. It was developed a visual analysis based on Peircean semiotic - from the proposed of Martine Joly (2006) - of album covers of different phonograph axes from 1969 to 1978, pointing how was constructed a dialogue between Tropicalismo’s design and the selected pieces. From this, it was possible to verify that the Tropicalismo had significant importance for the creation and implementation of a new visual language in Brazilian design and influenced, in different aspects, the development of album covers in the next decade.

CAPES / A pesquisa buscou investigar o Tropicalismo (1967-1968) e analisar de que forma sua linguagem gráfica repercutiu nas capas de disco de 1969 a 1978, ou seja, nos dez anos seguintes ao término oficial do movimento. A dissertação procurou pensar nas características estéticas e culturais presentes nos projetos gráficos, considerando o contexto histórico desses anos, as propostas da canção tropicalista, tal como as influências entre as sonoridades e visualidades do período. Para isso, foram estudadas as capas de disco do Brasil da segunda metade dos anos de 1960, com ênfase na Tropicália. Foram selecionadas dez capas de discos do período posterior, com o intuito de estabelecer comparações e discutir as principais referências. Foi desenvolvida uma análise visual com base na semiótica peirceana - a partir da proposta de Martine de Joly (2006) - de capas de eixos fonográficos diversos de 1969 a 1978, apontando de que maneira construiu-se um diálogo entre o design tropicalista e as peças selecionadas. A partir disso, foi possível verificar que o Tropicalismo teve significativa importância para a criação e implantação de uma nova linguagem visual no design brasileiro e influenciou, em diferentes aspectos, o desenvolvimento de capas de disco da década posterior. / The research sought to investigate the Tropicalismo (1967-1968) and analyse how its graphic language reflected in the album covers from 1969 to 1978, in other words, in the ten years following the official end of the movement. The dissertation attempted to think about the esthetic and cultural characteristics present in graphic projects, considering the historical context of those years, the proposals of the Tropicália’s songs and the influences between sounds and visualities of period. Thus, the research was studied the album covers of Brazil in the second half of the 1960s, with an emphasis on Tropicália. Ten album covers of the period subsequent were selected, to compare and discuss the main references. It was developed a visual analysis based on Peircean semiotic - from the proposed of Martine Joly (2006) - of album covers of different phonograph axes from 1969 to 1978, pointing how was constructed a dialogue between Tropicalismo’s design and the selected pieces. From this, it was possible to verify that the Tropicalismo had significant importance for the creation and implementation of a new visual language in Brazilian design and influenced, in different aspects, the development of album covers in the next decade.

Orientadores: Edson do Prado Pfützenreuter, Anna Paula Silva Gouveia / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T07:52:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rezende_AndreNovaesde_D.pdf: 133268389 bytes, checksum: e0ce46145e8906cad7a46c671ea5c52e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: No fim do século XIX, o diálogo entre as artes visuais e a música abriu precedentes para que as artes aplicadas, ou comerciais, incentivassem o consumo do espetáculo musical. Paralelamente, com o desenvolvimento tecnológico da indústria fonográfica, a música passou a ser gravada e comercializada. A comercialização da música gravada, por sua vez, também foi beneficiada por um interesse de explorar-se uma conexão visual com o conteúdo da gravação. Em 1940, este interesse foi diretamente manifestado pelo designer gráfico norte-americano Alex Steinweiss, quando começou a projetar capas de álbuns de discos de 78rpm para a gravadora Columbia Records. Steinweiss não foi o primeiro artista comercial ou designer gráfico a projetar uma capa ilustrada para álbuns de discos de 78rpm mas, ao projetar capas, foi pioneiro na intenção de exercer uma correspondência semântica com o conteúdo musical dos discos. Esta tese tem como grande objetivo o resgate das principais condições históricas e culturais que ajudaram a caracterizar o trabalho de Steinweiss e que possibilitaram fosse ele incorporado com sucesso pela indústria fonográfica. Por meio do levantamento de tais condições e também do próprio método de projeto de Steinweiss, observou-se que seu sucesso proporcionou o estabelecimento de um paradigma, na medida em que as soluções propostas por ele foram, posteriormente, tomadas como modelo e substituíram as regras vigentes para o projeto gráfico das capas dos álbuns de discos / Abstract: By the end of the nineteenth century, the dialog between visual arts and music was a great influence on the applied arts, or commercial arts, in its own task of promoting the music spectacle. Meanwhile, with the technological development of the music industry, music started to be recorded and commercialized. The recorded music business, moved by its own interests, also explored a visual connection with the recorded musical content of their product. In 1940, the early work of the American graphic designer Alex Steinweiss was a consequence of this interest, as he started to design album covers for 78rpm records while working at Columbia Records. Steinweiss was not the first commercial artist or graphic designer to design illustrated album covers for 78rpm records, but he was the first one who expected to achieve semantic correspondence with the musical content of the record. The main goal of this thesis is to retrieve key historical and cultural conditions that influenced Steinweiss' work and allowed him to succeed as a graphic designer inside the recorded music business. By doing so, and by setting up aspects of Steinweiss' design methods, we have come to the conclusion that his success characterized a paradigm. The solutions he offered were taken as models and replaced the rules that determined how an album cover should be designed / Doutorado / Artes Visuais / Doutor em Artes