300 Word Outline

A New Way of Seeing.


Industrial design has shaped the world in practicaly every way imaginable, ever since man first started using tools.
From the wheel to the printing press, the canal to the steam engine, industrial design has and still continues to make its mark on society and humanity. Gone are the days of drastic and revolutionary feats of marvel, today we live in a world when good design goes un-noticed. This is particurarly the case with musical instruments. We can easily identify when something is different, regardless of how obvious or subtle, we can almost always tell when somethings changed. To notice a diference and yet to be unable to pinpoint what has caused it is what apart the best from the rest.


When a musicain picks up/sits down at/with an unfamilar instrument, they can imedatly tell how an instrument 'feels.' Be it a dusty guitar from a back room or an old piano in a church, some insturments just 'feel good.'


My clip addresses this phenomonon as it shows the development of instruments, specifically the guitar and piano. The way industrial design has  created a new way of seeing is expressed through the development of technology and the resultant change in the music we can create. I have taken the seeing aspect metaphorically and suggest the 'new way' be the new technology and how the technology allows us to 'see,' new things with senses other than our eyes.


Techniques I used were a large amount of tracks and pan's across diferent instruments
to show the similarities and differences. I also paid attention to show a clear distinction between each instrument to emphasise the change, an absolutly somth transition would not have garnished the message in the way I intended. Also it  is ineresting to note my use of the test sample stop motion secquence showing the movement/playing of the analouge piano. I used this to emphasise the inperfection which human interaction with these prcision-enginered instruments creates. It is through our slight errors and quirks that music gains the character or expreson as we know it. As the world heads in an increasingly standardised and digital direction it is important to hold on to certain elements of music, specificaly the parts that make it so expressive. What makes it personal. What makes it human. 


This metaphonr can be related to any form of design itself. Since design is an expression of who and what we are, It is important to keep elements of humanity. In the age of a youth raised in photoshop and every other form of digital creation, we need to remember who we are and what we are doing and where we've come from. If we dont know where we've come from, how can we know where we're going? "The man who does not know hostory is destaned to repeat it."