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No. 53 · 2026Concept

The Record That Draws

A vinyl record (or any audio medium) that plays normally as sound. But the audio is engineered such that decoding it through a different lens (fax, spectrogram, SSTV) outputs an image. Hidden visual data carried in the waveform. Aphex Twin's spectrogram demon as the spiritual precedent.


Status
Concept
Year
2026
Stack
Sound Art · Vinyl · Spectrogram · Hybrid Media

The Idea

A vinyl record that obeys both rules: it sounds like music when you play it through a turntable, and it draws a picture when you play it through a fax decoder. The audio waveform is engineered to be dual-purpose. Pleasing to the ear and legible as image data when decoded through the right system.

The Reference

Aphex Twin's "Equation" hides a face in the spectrogram of the song. SSTV. Slow-scan television, used in amateur radio for decades. Transmits still images via audio frequencies. So the precedent for "audio as image" is real, not hypothetical. The record just makes it the point of the piece.

The Form

Could be a single object. A record paired with a fax printer that produces the artwork at playback. Could be a series, each record carrying a different hidden image. Could be a performance: play the record live, watch the image emerge from the printer in real time, frame by frame, while the music plays.

Status

Concept.