A proposal for a Boards of Canada anthology book

[Mark]

Twoism community,
I am a design student from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada who (like all of you) has a love and fascination for Boards of Canada. I have been listening to their music for many years now having been recommended to them by a close friend of mine and to say the least - I have been enamored with them ever since.
As I mentioned before I am a design student and I am currently working on a final thesis project.
Here is what I am proposing to do;

I am using Boards of Canada's music as the beginning grounds to what may end up being an interactive book that uses sound as an integral component or may end up being simply printed matter of some sort whether it is a collection of several books or one 'bible-like' encyclopedia. I am letting the process take it's form at this point in time.
>The content would mainly consist of an analysis of BoC's publicly released albums (from the early work of Twoism to the recent Trans Canada Highway Ep).
From that point there are other avenues that I will be exploring such as their mysticism, religion, artwork, themes etc. that branch out from each album.
It will attempt to depict similarities and differences but all will be heavily sourced and credible information. I want to stay away from any of the speculations behind the band and focus on what is factual.
( I am aware there are online sources for this sort of thing already - however my attempt would be to somewhat distill the information and cohesively lay it out in a linear book format with chapters and index's etc. )
>My intention is to communicate the intricacies and complexity of BoC's song structures to people who may or may not be aware of their music. The focus is on their music. How might one visually communicate the complexity of their songs?
Ofcourse because this is just a thesis project for school - the final prototype would be just that - a prototype for a fictitious non-fiction anthology of BoC's music and would never be distributed or sold.

So what do I ask from all of you?

I think a forum is the best place to gather some great feedback - so if anyone wants to contribute their thoughts, knowledge or suggestions - I would love to hear them...

I have already made a couple of visits to the library and have been collecting books about Numerology, secret frequencies, meteorological instruments, sacred geometry, psychology of sound etc.
These are just some of the themes I am exploring. Any other books or theme suggestions?

I would also be appreciative of any high resolution images relating to BoC that could help generate some nice layouts. Anyone have a good high res pic of the two brothers looking obscure/mysterious (like the early photos where they barely showed their face?)
If possible I would like any images sent to have the artist/photographer's credit included.

I will keep posting any further updates that I have regarding my thesis project (spreads, graphics etc.) once they start to take form. At the moment I am still in the research stage...

Thanks for your time.
Look forward to hearing from you all.

Mark.

[Vordhosbn]

this is disturbing

[Aesthetics]

You might find some ideas in this topic.

[Frank]

Hehe, like Aesthetics said i'm doing sort of the same thing. But i'm not going thát deep into it.

Actually i'm not really happy how it turned out. I now have the feeling i shouldn't try to explain boc, but just keep it to myself. When i started i was more like 'Everyone who reads this should know as much about boc as i do after reading it'. But.. that's impossible, for me anyway. I'm not a writer, i'm a designer. And at this moment i don't even like the design that much anymore. I will finish it anyway, but i'm not really happy with it, which kinda sucks because it's my thesis and all, but yeah..

Anyway, i'm really interested in seeing how you will do. So keep us posted.

[Joebot Kill]

i have to start my final thesis tomorrow!!

[isawdrones]

I now have the feeling i shouldn't try to explain boc, but just keep it to myself.

[Mark]

Thanks to all who have posted already. I took the time to read Frank's posts (great minds think alike - Frank) and there were a lot of responses that had helpful suggestions for how to go about this project. Frank - or anyone else who have attempted at doing a similar project - if you want to post spreads here as well that would be great.
I would have to agree with Frank's comment about demystifying. That's not my agenda either. The mystery is one of the great aspects behind Boards of Canada's music. I guess I'm just interested in the connections between the music and themes... but who knows where it will go... It's both exciting and really nerve racking. Staying true to BoC's standards is ridiculously difficult.

In the meantime here is a content chart that goes into a bit more detail of what the layouts might consist of. Think of it as a menu of sorts to the cookbook-like collection that may arise from all the information. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l72/t ... tchart.jpg

And here are two quick samples from my 'raw data' spreads. Ignore the piss poor design alignment - these are still super rough. There may be colour added as well... suggestions/critiques are welcome.
The idea is for these spreads is explained on my content chart above.
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l72/t ... pread2.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l72/t ... pread1.jpg

Thanks again.
Mark.

[Frank]

That's looking very promising already Mark. And it's a different approach than what i was aiming for, although we have some similarities.

I have to complete my work this week, so i will show something next weekend.

[infinite sevens]

you should talk about the samples, about how they evoke a sort of pyschological response. How these samples seem separated from reality, yet they express what cannot be expressed in words. Like the "I love you" in "An Eagle In Your Mind", or the moaning, distorted "voice" in "You Could Feel the Sky".

[Treefingers]

Yeah, you could have a holiday with 'Dawn Chorus'.

[Vordhosbn]

all this is has good intentions...but it makes no sense. You don't know Mike and Marcus. You don't know Hexagon Sun's viewpoints. All this mania over some scant material from interviews is ridiculous.

Just know you aren't making this about "BoC" you are making it about "what people think is BoC"

[Mark]

all this is has good intentions...but it makes no sense. You don't know Mike and Marcus. You don't know Hexagon Sun's viewpoints. All this mania over some scant material from interviews is ridiculous.

Just know you aren't making this about "BoC" you are making it about "what people think is BoC"

I intend this to be somewhat of a celebratory piece of design. I don't want to pretend to know who Boards of Canada are and what they stand for - I'm really just interested in the design challenge of working with very minimal details about Boards of Canada and the extremely daunting task of not having this turn into another 'obsessive-fan' - like piece.
But to some it may seem that that's the way it's going...
I apologize to anyone who I might offend by attempting to do this but I figure there's no sense in not trying.
I do appreciate the criticism, Vordhosbn - it helps me stay on my toes.

Mark.