Month: September 2023

SOMEWHERE BEYOND OUR UNIVERSE is a visualization of what I experienced when hearing one of my favorite songs for the first time, as well as my very first Adobe Illustrator work. 

The song I used is called GERONIMO! by the Korean artist DPR LIVE. DPR LIVE is part of a larger group of artists and producers called DPR, or Dream Perfect Regime. The people under DPR are all some next level music and video producers, and the music they make beggars belief. 

The first time I listened to GERONIMO! I was going through a miraculous experience. It was as if I could hear every note and instrument and sound that was used to create the song. I could see myself going on a journey through the atmosphere and into space, passing stars and planets on my way.

The Background

I wanted to create the black background of space without using a flat black background. Specifically for two reasons: 1) I wanted to emulate stars in the far distant background and 2) as you go through your journey, the space around you gets brighter and brighter. I figured that I needed a shape that offers both a lot of positive and negative space, and ‘W’ fit the bill perfectly. To generate that brightening effect, I lessened the stroke and spacing between rows of W’s to gradually shift the work from negative to positive space. The objects that are then placed over the back layer also follow the shift.

Stellar Objects

Throughout the song, there are shifts in beat, flow, etc., and I chose to represent that with a variety of stellar objects such as stars and planets. To help with the definition of space, I made some objects appear bigger than others. In addition, I included stars that were closer to the viewer.

Letter Choice

When it came to picking what letters I wanted to use, I chose those whose sounds I heard in the music. V’s, O’s, H’s and U’s are prominent throughout the piece.  

Direction

The last thing I want to point out is the path of the ship that helps to direct the viewer’s eyes through the work without missing anything. The song takes you through this adventure and ends in a huge crash, so to simulate that I lead the viewer into a black whole.

Technique

The song sounds futuristic, so I used a modern-looking font. In addition, I tried doing the most I could by keeping it relatively simple so that the work could be clear.

My first iteration was really not much different from my final, it was me more or less figuring out what I was going to depict in the final work.

What I aimed to depict to the aliens is not exactly a human invention, but a human discovery that led to the invention of many of the things on earth that we as humans take for granted today.

While the usage of fossil fuels today is frowned upon as we look for more renewable sources to sustain our constantly growing energy consumption, it is important to remember and acknowledge that the discovery of crude oil was one of the biggest moment’s in human history. It began the shift from a coal based economy to an oil one. From how we navigate our planet to how we cook our food, the majority our homes and vehicles run on oil. The energy plants that generate our electricity also run on fossil fuels such as oil. We use it to lubricate machinery and in plastics that we use every day. The extend to which we rely on crude oil is massive, and if any alien civilization wanted to know what of the keystones of our society today, oil would be one of the first things that I would introduce to them. 

In my plaque, which is read in a circle starting from the top left and flows clockwise, I start with a depiction of plant life. Specifically a fern and a Wollemi pine tree, which are both plants that grew and existed during the Mesozoic era. Over time plants like these compress underground into peat and eventually into oil. This process takes millions of years, but given the Heptapods’ uniform perception of time, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the process.

The next part that I depict is a couple of barrels of oil. I kept this pretty straightforward but also visually explicit. The plant life turns into black gold over huge stretches of time and encase it, making it ready for use in all sorts of things.

The final piece shows a moving car, a leaving airplane, a rocket taking off, a lightbulb, and a stove with a steak on it. This is to show them how much of what we do depends on the usage of oil. It powers our homes and fuels our expansion into the stars. Without it, we might not have made it to where we are today.

Artboard 1

Song: GERONIMO! by DPR LIVE