2011
LP-Cover Design
Florian Hecker: ²⁄₈ Bregman ⁴⁄₈ Deutsch ⁷⁄₈ Hecker ¹⁄₈ Höller

Florian Hecker’s ’s double 10″ vinyl dramatizes Albert Bregman’s research on Auditory Scene Analysis and the Musical Psychology of Diana Deutsch. The typography seconds the Gestalt Principles that strongly influenced Auditory Scene Analysis. Each letter was cut in the middle, breaking it into two halves of the exact same mathematical surfaces. Then one half was shifted to the point where readability is still possible, while trying to reach the limits: if one would shift them more, readability would get lost. This principle combined with a super-vivid color-combination creates a vibrating impact. Letters seem to be moving, it’s a trick on the readers mind.
Programmed with scriptographer, thanks for the programming: Clemens Schrammel.

16–25 September 2011
Tallinn (Estonia)
www.disainioo.ee

On September 16-25, the European Capital of Culture Tallinn hosts the Design Night Festival. An exhibition of Austrian design, curated by Thomas Hamann, shows two of our works: “Euregio Magazine” from Tina Frank Design (2008) and “Real Fake – Reality as Image/Image as Reality”, published by the department graphic design & photography at Kunstuniversität Linz (2010).

Real Fake – Reality as Image/Image as Reality
Design: Alexander Kremmers, Michael Reindl
Editing: Tina Frank, Julia Juriga-Lamut
Publisher: Kunstuniversität Linz, Institut für Medien, Abteilung Grafikdesign und Fotografie

Euregio
Design: Tina Frank, Elvira Stein
Editing: Sergio Gobet, Leon Horvatič, Patrick Karlsen, Enrico Merchetto
Publisher: Informest

20–25 September 2011
SC Zagreb (Croatia)

Tina Frank is member of the Grand Jury at 25 FPS – International Festival of Experimental Film in Zagreb. For the festival, she curated a filmscreening, focusing on early works in the field of graphic movies, mixed with current works including Tina Frank’s last release Vergence. Many of these videos have one thing in common: a special tendency to interact with music.

Exposé: Graphic Movies (Text: Tina Frank)

This selection of movies, compiled by Tina Frank, shows films from people whose works were pioneering and set the way for many others to follow. Their mind was filled with a strong idea that needed a special technique, something not yet available, to make this idea visible.

In 1967 A. Michael Noll wrote about the use of computers in visual arts: “In the computer, man has created not just an inanimate tool but an intellectual and active creative partner that, when fully exploited, could be used to produce wholly new art forms and possibly new aesthetic experiences.”[1]  It is this vision of producing new experiences, of creating the means to visualize their ideas that one can feel in all these films. The selection shows Len Lye’s Colorfield, a film made in 1939 that showcases his hand-painted and stenciled imagery. Because of showing his sponsor’s symbol – a speedbird depicting Imperial Airways – his film got the status of an advertising film and was not shown in the US. It also features cornerstones of digital creation from the late 1960s to 1980 (Stan VanDerBeek’s Poemfield No. 2, Calculated Movements from Larry Cuba and Spiral PTL from Dan Sandin and Tom deFanti) as well as movies with a clear and minimalist graphic notion (Norman McLaren’s Synchromy, Robert Breer’s film Fuji) together with three austrian works from 2010 (Lia’s Machination 84, Stuck in a Groove from Clemens Kogler and Vergence, a movie by Tina Frank and Florian Hecker)

Graphic Movies are – generally speaking – moving images that use a simplified, abstracted and graphic language. They are not narratives telling a story with a clear strand of a plot, it is the intense experience of form and color in combination with sound that tells a story beyond the classical narrative space. Their reduced formal language follows minimalist claims. By using abstraction all those little things that distract from the very idea are eliminated. And yet we experience worlds much more intense than they seem at first, featuring simple, geometric patterns. They create a special atmosphere rising up through the illustrated shapes and colors.

Many of these videos have one thing in common: a special tendency to interact with music. Sound is a determining factor and the relationship between image and sound plays an important role. This connection opens up a vast field of experimentation. Artists working within this field are creating a unique art form of its own. Synchromy from Norman McLaren is an example of absolute correspondence of what-you-see-is-what-you-hear. He copied patterns into the sound track section as well as the visual area of the film material to achieve such a correspondence. Larry Cuba’s Calculated Movements explores the direct connection between algebra, music and abstract form.[2] This is also a driving factor in Lia’s collaboration with @c – her video works are abstract illustrations of electronic music, based on mathematics and algorithms. Stuck in a Groove from Clemens Kogler uses collective commemorative pieces from the field of pop music. He utilizes elements of pictures that graced the covers of famous pop music albums giving a face to music. Florian Hecker’s computer-generated sounds for Vergence create a sea of acoustic impressions where spatial movement and psycho-acoustic phenomena intertwine.

When watching the latest movies we see how the now obviously available possibilities of graphic and generative technologies have changed our visual world. Today artists are still striving to produce an impact with their works; they are experimenting with basic knowledge – research on perception principles or the shaping of forms by computational means through audio as well as creating reinterpretations of past concepts of music-conservation, like rotating plates, for a translation into visual realms.

We are now far more experienced in understanding and comparing visual arts that were created with digital and computational means. We look at what has been produced rather then how something was produced . Because we have now experienced many different digital works we can much better grasp the quality of the shown films compared to when they were produced.[3] Nevertheless it is always interesting to understand how things were produced – please refer to the description of each movie for more information about the production process.

[1] “The Digital Computer as a Creative Medium,” IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 4, No. 10, (October 1967), pp. 89-95.
[2] cf. Faber, Walters, Animation unlimited, pp48
[3] A. Michael Noll stated, that “…the future will have truly arrived, when the emphasis is on what has been produced as opposed to how it was produced.” “Computers and the Visual Arts: A Retrospective View,” Catalog of the SIGGRAPH ’82 Art Show (July 1982)

2011
CD-/ LP-Cover Design
Yasunao Tone: MP3 Deviations 2011

Yasunao Tone creates music by means of disrupting MP3-files. Sound files that were corrupted in the MP3 generate error messages, which are then utilized to assign various lengths of samples  automatically. Feeding also different play back speeds creates a sound which is always different – unpredictable and unknowable.

Out of Yasunaos Music we created black-and-white imagefiles that show the flow of music; lighter colors are loud frequencies, black parts are quiet frequencies. These images are then used as displacement maps on various photographic images. Each color-channel (red, green, blue) uses different displacement maps, which create different color shifts deviated by the music. The CD-package shows images from inside (architecture = human built structure) and outside (mountain = nature built structure). “Outside” is shown inside, whereas “Inside” is shown outside.

Photography of mountain: Florian Voggeneder. Geo-tagged quadrocopter-image of future railwaystation: Ramon Bauer, Michael Holzapfel, Andreas Pieper (48.294561° N + 15.995606° E; approx. 100 m above ground). Photography of architectural structure: Tina Frank.

This package uses a font called Beowulf from the Netherlands designers Letteror, which has (near) random shapes = each letter has a slightly different outline.

2011
CD-Cover Design
Designers: Tina Frank & students from University of Art and Design, Linz
Music by: Christoph Cech & students from Anton Bruckner Private University, Linz

This is a CD package for “pictures of my exhibition” by Christoph Cech and students from Anton Bruckner Private University. It was developed in cooperation with the students from graphic design and photography at University of Art and Design Linz under the guidance of Tina Frank. The one meter long booklet transforms the music of the entire CD into a full-length collage, thereby becoming a static visualization of the sounding pictures of Christoph Cech.

2011
Magazine (Re-)Design, Issue 8
Designers: Tina Frank, Elvira Stein
Cover Artwork: Zilla Leutenegger
Publisher: Michaela Leutzendorff Pakesch / Sabine Kienzer

Tina Frank Design was invited to redesign schau art magazine, a magazine which shows the current activities of arts and culture in austria. The magazine’s target group is teenagers.. but not only! Pursuing a charming and direct visual language, the first issue in the new design is now released. Looking forward to see it in stores!

2010
Design: Elvira Stein
not realized, Design for a Pitch

Der erste Eindruck zählt: offen, weit und besonders
Wenn ein Besucher die Website zum Tourismusportal Niedersachsen das erste Mal anwählt, wird er mit einer Einstimmung auf die Besonderheiten der Region visuell und inhaltlich begrüßt:

Ein stimmungsvolles Foto, das eine offene Landschaft, Weite und einen hohen Himmel zeigt, kombiniert mit einer sprachlichen Besonderheit der Region – einem freundlichen Willkommensgruß auf Plattdeutsch (“en moi dag wünsch ik di”). Damit wird der Besucher empfangen, begrüßt und bereits die richtige Stimmung für Urlaub vermittelt: Empfindungen wie “Freiheit im Kopf”, Entspannung und das Gefühl, dass man die Enge des Bildschirms gleich verlassen kann.

Wie auch die Landschaft, so wurde das Screendesign gestaltet: die Offenheit zieht sich durch die Webseite, strahlt Ruhe aus, sodass wichtige Bedienelemente leicht zu finden sind. Eine großzügige Gestaltung mit gut lesbaren Schriften in ordentlichen Größen entspricht modernen Webstandards und kommt zudem Benutzern aller Altersklassen entgegen.

2010
Book “Handbuch und Planungshilfe – Signaletik und Piktogramme”
DOM Publishers

2010
Double-LP Artwork
Designer: Tina Frank
Label: Editions Mego (Austria)

2010
Double-LP Artwork
Designer: Tina Frank
Photography: Hertha Hurnaus
Label: Editions Mego (Austria)

Today i received a package from Editions Mego with the anniversary issue of Christian Fennesz “Endless Summer”. To celebrate this 10years anniversary the music was packaged into a spacey double LP format. For the design of the cover we created a lush dark version printed with only three colors: a special metallic bronze-color, together with only black and red. The last image shows the original design in full-color. The new LP-package is therefore a “remix” of our own graphics.

The concept for the graphics comes from several strands of ideas: i wanted to build a threedimensional space that opens your mind, by placing two images side by side together with a floor to create the illusion of a room. The images have a layer of whirring red-yellow colors intop of them – a visual reference to the movie “the endless summer”. The images show contact prints from Hertha Hurnaus’ photos, one can see the rough edges and the materiality of the photographic film. This adds to the feeling of lost times and forgotten places.

This is what other people say:

“.. I was gazing over it as the extended version of Happy Audio played it’s glowing outro and it filled me with a very warm feeling. I haven’t had that one overcome me in a while. You really hit the nail on the head insofar as creating something completely modern, yet nostalgia-inducing and familiar.” Blair Martin Hall

October 2, 2010
Video Projection
Designers: Tina Frank, Elvira Stein
Sound: Andreas Kurz
Curator: Magnus Hofmüller
Thanks to Mehmet Akten for the night light sequence

For the Long Night of the Museums in Linz, the Lentos Kunstmuseum was transformed into a hotel. This event played with the reinterpretation of a room, a play within the white cube of Kunstmuseum Lentos. The architecture of Hotel LENTOS***** was only suggested by white markerlines on the floor, becoming alive through its guests.

Tina Frank & Elvira Stein created a 40 m long videoprojection for the visual transformation of Lentos Kunstmuseum into Hotel LENTOS*****. It became an athmospheric backdrop which maneuvered between two positions: Stanley Kubricks »Shining« and Willi Forsts operetta-movie »Im weißen Rößl«. The acoustic interpretation from Andreas Kurz built the soundtrack for the Hotel Lentos*****.

More pictures can be found on flickr.

2010
Text: AV-Parameter-Mapping in der Musikvisualisierung
Published in: Audiovisuology Compendium (See This Sound)
Authors: Tina Frank, Lia

Overview (read the chapters on the Website of See This Sound)
1 Elektronische Musik im Live-Kontext
2 Digitaler Code – Die gemeinsame Basis von Ton und Bild
3 Die Entwicklung der Bildsprache in Live Visuals
4 Software-Tools
5 Der Live-Faktor

Abstract
Mit dem Aufkommen von erschwinglichen Personal Computern mit Prozessoren und Applikationen, die in der Lage waren, bewegte Bilder in Echtzeit zu manipulieren, konnten die bisher medientechnisch voneinander getrennten Phänomene Ton und Bild durch algorithmische Übersetzung von auditiven in visuelle Parameter verknüpft werden.

Ein Wegbereiter dieser Entwicklung war die zunehmende Verbreitung elektronischer Musik, bei der sich der Computer zum Instrument etablierte. Die Musik wurde digital erstellt und die vorhandenen Applikationen legten nahe, mit der Verknüpfungdigitaler Sounds und Bilder zu experimentieren.

Mit den ersten Programmen wurde zunächst versucht, Techniken aus dem Bereich des analogen Videos in die digitalen Möglichkeiten zu übersetzen und Bildparameter zu manipulieren. Bald wurden jedoch Programme entwickelt, die generative Prozesse beinhalteten und eine eigenständige digitale Ästhetik hervorbrachten.

Sound konnte nun analysiert und in verschiedene Frequenzbänder zerlegt werden und somit als Datenmaterial den Input für bildgenerierende Systeme liefern. Im Zuge der direkten Programmierbarkeit ist inzwischen eine Vielfalt komplexer Generierungsverfahren entstanden, die das Spektrum der Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten beständig erweitern und reichhaltiger werden lassen.

Der anfängliche Anwendungsbereich digitaler Musikvisualisierungen umfasste Club-Visuals und Live-Performances im Rahmen von Konzerten mit elektronischer Musik. Heute sind sie auf Events jeder Art verbreitet. Mit dem Durchbruch der LED-Technik wird verstärkt der öffentliche Raum erobert. Zahlreiche Gebäude und Werbewände weisen bespielbare Oberflächen auf und werden für künstlerische Interventionen genutzt. Darüber hinaus produzieren zeitgenössische KünstlerInnen zunehmend multimediale Arbeiten auf DVD oder als Installation.

2010
CD Artwork
Designers: Tina Frank, Elvira Stein
Photographer: Alexander Koller

The Vegetable Orchestra performs music on instruments which are made of vegetables – this is 100% organic music, so to speak. Their instruments they deteriorate right from the start. We were asked to create a cover which gives a dark athmosphere, which shows how things change. The orchestra built a big picture with their instruments and vegetable. We took the photographs from the deterioration process and built a musical image-scene.

The package consists of a naturally feeling digifile (no plastic, except for the knob to hold the CD) with lush poster inside. If you want to know more about their music, head over to www.gemueseorchester.org.

2010
CD/LP Artwork
Designers: Tina Frank, Elvira Stein
Photographer: Wolf-Dieter Grabner

Colorful, layering RGB lightspots by Tina Frank illuminate Elvira Stein’s illustration and the typography, in real 3D. That’s the scenery we created for Heaven And, and it would not look that perfect without Wolf-Dieter Grabner, who joined us as photographer.

2010
CD Artwork for COH
Designer: Tina Frank
Label: rotorelief

May 28, 2010
Symposium, Exhibition
Kunstuniversität Linz (Austria)
Concept: Tina Frank
Moderation: Clemens Schedler
Speakers: Peter Döllmann, Markus Hanzer, Martin Hochleitner, honey and bunny productions: Sonja Stummerer & Martin Hablesreiter, Karsten Schmidt, Lois Renner, Sissel Tolaas

The beginning of the 21st century encapsulates us in artificially constructed and imaginary (visual) worlds. It is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between representation and modelled reality. Self-expression, self-orchestration – the design of the perceivable reality is an increasingly important factor in business. The authentic is invisible and life stories are (perfectly) constructed.

The international symposium REAL FAKE — reality as image :: image as reality on 28 May 2010 in Linz is on a quest to find the authentic portrayal and creation of realities for companies, organisations, people and our surroundings.

Artists, designers, academics and business experts will discuss how they interact with reality. How can pure design and photography positively shape the perception of reality? The symposium provides insights into the multifaceted coherence between business, design and image.