{"id":10368,"date":"2022-01-30T16:49:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T21:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/?p=10368"},"modified":"2022-01-30T16:49:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T21:49:06","slug":"oblique-industry-modular-synthesis-aesthetic-design-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/2022\/oblique-industry-modular-synthesis-aesthetic-design-principles","title":{"rendered":"Oblique Industry: Modular Synthesis aesthetic design principles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve started a new endeavor with my frequent creative collaborator, Septic Snake: Oblique Industry<\/strong><\/em>. After years of making weird electronic music together, we\u2019ve started designing sound synthesis modules to Open Source and manufacture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One of the things that one has to do at the beginning of a public project that is to figure out how to express the spirit of the thing you\u2019re creating for the audience you\u2019re speaking to. The decision you make at this point can form the principles that you use as tools to determine how you want the project to go when you encounter the unexpected situations that begin appearing immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The beans:peas ratio is implicit in any Fourier series.<\/em> The modules are a 1hp spacer, a 2hp module (not much fits in 2hp) and an 8hp module. These don\u2019t represent actual modules, but are the equivalent of lorem ipsum text to try out the visuals. The logo on the bottom left is intended to look like a slot screw, a caution stripe, I(nput)\/O(utput), and the superimposed 1\/0 power symbol. The name is a reference to Brian Eno\u2019s Oblique Strategies, and so is oblique \u2014\u00a0still going pretty much forward, but tilted in a non-obvious direction.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A central element of those principles is the aesthetic identity of the project. The identity includes colors, fonts, line weights, and proportions that you discover in the creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all identity projects I do, this one is coming in a set of three initial directions. The first one I\u2019ve gotten done is called Powerstation<\/em>. It\u2019s the mass-produced version of my own hacked-together synthesizer, the Black Centipede. It\u2019s a lot more conservative than the Black Centipede is, which I described once as \u201cMilitary\/Industrial Waste\u201d and I might try it with some more chaotic patterns, too. Becoming too conservative when trying to appeal to a broader audience is an easy trap to fall into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Black Centipede minus the power supply, which is behind all the modules. The big coily black cable at the bottom carries \u00b112V, 0V, and 5V power through a standard jack on each of my discrete rack\/modules.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aesthetically, you want to be the second<\/em> penguin at the water\u2019s edge: the first one in gets the first shot at the fish, but is at the greatest risk of being eaten by a seal. I\u2019m frequently the first penguin. All the following penguins have to confront fish that are now alert and on the run. But the second one gets almost <\/em>as good a shot at the fish, and gets to see if the guy in front got themself et and figure out if there are more seals before jumping in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is, if you get too weird, no one will be able to see what you\u2019re getting at, sure. But if you\u2019re not weird enough, you wind up chasing the remaining fish who are now on missions of their own. When you\u2019re doing creative things, but competing on price \u2014\u00a0because those dollars are the remaining fish \u2014\u00a0then you\u2019re in trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modules we\u2019re considering are pretty unusual, representing pretty experimental directions. I\u2019m trying to figure out how to express that in a way that piques the interest of a scene that craves both weird novelty and retro Techno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Modular systems are a function of industrial society. But do people of The Fifth World still know how to agree to standards? With their acute interest in efficiency, I think they might have carried that lesson forward!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve started a new endeavor with my frequent creative collaborator, Septic Snake: Oblique Industry. After years of making weird electronic music together, we\u2019ve started designing sound synthesis modules to Open Source and manufacture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":10371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[252],"class_list":["post-10368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-set-of-all-sets-that-do-not-include-themselves","tag-oblique-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10373,"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10368\/revisions\/10373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}