The project for this assignment was intended to respond to the concept of modularity in a variety of ways; an examination of the presence of modularity in modern interactive projects of a similar nature, such as Viewfinders and Are You Happy Now, its presence in video itself as a creative medium (with the “modules” being audio and video in most cases), as well as its possible applications in more traditional mediums. We decided to respond to this concept and its applications through an interactive project we’ve entitled Judging by the Cover, which examines album covers and their capacity to influence the viewer and immediately become the subject of early judgment and first impressions. Judging by the Cover consisted of 11 short, fictional videos based on the initial response of the creator to a certain album cover when considered an individual, independent piece of art, without consideration of the actual music behind it, as well as a twelfth and final clip pairing these videos with their respective inspirations. The albums taken were from a range of artists, genres, timelines and aesthetics, and the video responses made were intended to exist on a wide spectrum of abstraction and conceptualism, the only constraints being its relation to the creators first impression of the album art, and its timeframe of around 30 seconds each.
One of the more predominant reasons for choosing the subject matter of an album cover to respond to the idea of modularity is that it demonstrates the way in which content creators are progressive to a more modern, modular mindset. By taking the non-modular art of an album cover and converting it into a modular fragment inside an interactive project, we are in a sense developing our own interpretations of the medium itself, in the same way modern filmmakers might look to a program such as Korsakow to change the viewers perspective on an average video.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with how Judging by the Cover responds to this idea. On a fundamental level, the interface when converted into Korsakow was a clear example of a modular, interactive project, and on a more conceptual level I believe the project demonstrates how not just an album cover, but any singular medium can be converted and developed into a modular form. I think the videos themselves had enough interesting variation to be considered their own separate entities and had enough cohesiveness to be effective as fragments in a larger project. Besides the addition of a wider range of albums, if this project were to be expanded, incorporating sub-groups based on genre would add another layer of modularity, as well as make it a little more intuitive and logical in its progression, which in turn would also give more variability in the different “narratives” you could take while navigating the project.
Lastly, I believe this project raises an interesting question about the future of media production, will it be possible that other non-modular artistic mediums, such as audio, paintings, novels etc. begin to develop into modular productions in the future? The ability to do so is certainly there.