Human In The Loop (Cover Art Notes)

 

What I like about being both a musician and visual artist is that I can alternate between the two and they inform one another. For The Human In the Loop album I was going for a "metamodern" vibe--a mix of modernism and postmodernism, placing traditional Old Master paintings against what is essentially "modernist" music. I call it modernist because I'm incorporating orchestral elements, scored by me. It's my "representational painting", because I am not a traditional artist. My art is all postmodern (and minimalist), and is based on ideas. I grew up in the 60s and 70s so it's in my bones. It's also postmodernist in the sense that I'm juxtaposing the sacred and profane. I had seen some of this type of work at art shows over the years that pulled no punches, and I liked it. But I've had a change of heart over the years and have become somewhat of a Stuckist. I like that I have the necessary skills of a musical stuckist, but it wouldn't be all I'd ever want to do. The Dada period in the 19-teens was all about tearing down the righteousness of Old Master work, as Duchamp did when he covered ironing boards with Rembrandts. This is sort of like that, but it was all in good fun. 

For the video thumbnails I used one of my favorite David Hockney swimming pool paintings, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), and one of Jeff Koons' paintings, Antiquity (Ariadne Titian Bacchus Popcorn), with its huge penis (over which I placed an expurgating hand). I wanted paintings that were irreverent or wacky in some way so as to be postmodern. Not that the Hockney is wacky, but it does carry a 70s California vibe, and perhaps hints at Hockney's sexuality. It's also a pun of Human In The Pool.

Individual Tracks:

Idea To Product. Background image: Charles Eames' studio workbench (where the ideas became products)

Tableau Vivant. Painting: Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David (and a great idea for a Tableau Vivant)

30000 Years. Uses ancient cave art and some Neanderthals

Only For the Action. Paintings: Georges Rouget. The Death of Demosthenes, 1805, The Vision of St. John by El Greco. El Greco's work was called "shockingly modern"

Blue Sequin Dress. Painting: The Nightmare by John Fuseli, and Yves Klein's Anthropométrie 

200 Years. Background: The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel by Louis Daguerre (1824); and The Sea of Ice by Caspar David Friedrich (1824). I intentionally used works done in 1824, 200 years ago.