The Science Behind The Cover of Unknown Pleasures
Vložit
- čas přidán 18. 06. 2018
- I'm a bit of a music and science nerd and these unrelated fields have come together for the iconic cover to Joy Division's album "Unknown Pleasures". There are quite a few pop culture works that use images of space, but this uses a data visualization from an astronomer's PhD thesis, and there's a lot to be said about this.
Thanks to the resurgence of Vinyl as a recording medium you can still buy this in its original form:
amzn.to/2tllQTo - Věda a technologie
I declare this the ultimate scott trivia. You can't get anymore Scott Manley than this story. Thank you Scott Manley for such a strong dose of Scott Manley in my day.
I hear the law on Scott Manley is being relaxed after it was inadvisably confiscated at a spaceport.
My daily shot of Manley trivia
..very Manley indeed!
This is exactly what I did my senior thesis research on in the 90's, using pulsar data from Arecibo and Green Bank. The changing shape of the pulses actually tells you more about the Interstellarium Medium than about the pulsar. I guess I should buy the T-shirt...
Michael Faison go for the rare disney version lol
I was just thinking that surely it would be more regular pattern. What information could you glean from the interstellar medium by analysing the deformation in the signal from stellar dust, other planets and starts to gravity wells near by. It's like having a giant X-Ray machine in space.
This is one of my all time favorite albums, and learning that the pulsar data plot was from Arecibo, Puerto Rico (which is where I'm from) makes it so much more special. Thanks for this!
Unknown Pleasures is one of the greatest albums ever, in my humble opinion. Ian Curtis left us way too soon.
For me, by far THE best album cover of all time, has got to be............. *_Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures_*
It's just perfect. Simple. Captivating. Mysterious. Aesthetically pleasing. It's totally iconic. Love it.
its' remarkable, the pulses from a city-sized object thousands of light years away has inspired our culture so much. The night sky is like a giant television playing billions of programs all at once; every degree you shift you're watching a different show.
Heh, Television. RIP Tom Verlaine.
Never heard of….. the sun?
I think the best part of it is the hidden line removal. A lost art, and in this case, actually occluding data so it is mostly aestethic
Thank you so much for this Scott, as I'm also a Joy Division fan (and New Order) and always loved the album cover. I can't believe it was down to Sumner, and just always imagined it was a design created by Saville. So thanks for the insight, and how cool it is to hear its from my favourite space oddity a Pulsar.
Wow, I never knew the interplay of aestheticism, artistry, and astronomy represented by that graph. Really cool stuff! I'd love to see more videos like this! Keep up the good work Manley!
This is fantastic!!!! I will watch 4 more times. This is a huge contribution for JD history. Well done.
This is science for grown ups. A TV documentary would spend ages explaining "lgm" and "Joy Division"to us, and would avoid "Fourier Transform" like the plague. We're smarter than that.
this. this!!! this is the problem i have with tv documentaries and the reason i dont watch them
Hey Scott, I don’t know if you’ll ever read this, but I just wanted to say my thanks for introducing me Joy Division. I first watched this video around the time you released it, and around that time I was going through some tough mental health issues. It was the first time I had experienced those issues, and oddly enough, just one day I watched your video, and was curious about Joy Division based upon what you said in the video. I listened to Unknown Pleasures and was immediately in love. It was exactly what I needed at the time, music to fit my emotions to. I spent the next several weeks diving into their discography, as well as the history of the band, and learning/listening to all of that was profoundly impactful to me in ways I can’t describe. And to this day I still listen to them quite frequently, and I even own some of there records on vinyl, including a vintage Unknown Pleasures from 1978. And looking back, I have you to thank for that. You’re an inspiration to everyone in this platform, and just by making educational CZcams videos, you’re able to help people in ways no one could have imagined. So, thank you for doing what you do Scott, it truly means a lot.
Thanks for this informative video Scott! I have a copy of this album, and thanks to you, I now know where the cover design came from! Great story!
Would you say that this is radio live transmission then?
You could say that... but Transmission wasn’t on this album. Although the cover to the single was an image of Orion’s Nebula
I'm so disappointed..love will tear us apart now, Lisa errr..Scott!!!
ok, I'll stop now..:D
You can't trust Lisa. I mean take a good look at her: confusion in her eyes. That says it all.
She's lost control.
Gummy Bugz Seems they don't really blink, they just light up and rotate, but we only pick up the signal when it sweeps past our telescope. If we somehow put two radio telescopes a long way from each other, they should pick up the signal at different times, and the difference divided by the repeat period is how big a fraction of half a circle around the pulsar the two telescopes are from each other. Reversing that calculation should give the actual distance to the pulsar. Hard part is putting the two telescopes far enough apart to actually get a measurable difference.
Things like this are why over the years, Scott’s channel is the only one to be permanent on my subscriptions. Genuinely educational and interesting stuff, in every video.
my favorite album of all time!
I love all things space and astronomy. The album is one of my personal favourites of all time, and for it to be talked about in a scientific way, is just awesome
Yes. I enjoyed the story!
Visualizations of scientific observations are often so striking. And pondering what underlying phenomena they might describe is pure fun.
One of my fav albums. Man we played this some in the early mid eighties.
Nice to know the history of the as you say, iconic cover.
Very interesting stuff Scott. Thanks for sharing.
Weird coincidence (or probably YT algorithms). Have been following events at Boca Chica for a while and discovered Scott's channel as a result a few months ago. Tonight I was re-watching Control and logged on just now to find this video in my suggested list. I was a 16 year old Manc and JD fan in 1980 and vividly remember my friend knocking tearily at my door to bring the news that Ian Curtis had died. Just before logging on to YT tonight I also ordered an unknown pleasures T shirt (in a much larger size than the one I had in the 80's by the way). Scott, you've gone even further up in my estimation!
Great info! Never had a clue about the cover art. I actually owned this vinil disc. Thanks
Excellent stuff Scott.
one of the best albums ever produced.
Always full of insight that even a space geek like me didn't have - presented in an easy to digest and interesting way. Good work.
When you put up that image, it instantly reminded me of SETI@Home, and I knew it was a processed signal from a star. I didn't know anything else about it, but I spent countless hours watching SETI build those charts, and wondering how I'd know if one of the spikes was an alien. I'm glad that time has become useful.
I've wondered about this for 36 years. Thank you Mr. Manley.
I've got a print of this on black foam core in my living room. Love JD.
I did enjoy the story Scott. Thanks for sharing.
Really enjoyed the story, thanks for sharing!
Scott, I think the term for the type of plot is "waterfall diagram".
In the early 80s I built my own version of a Fairlight CMI using a BBC Micro and an ADC and DACs, and a lot of assembly coding - one of my screens made images exactly like this!
I later did a postgrad in music information technology and they accepted my years of development in lieu of a degree, then went to work for Syco where I would end up working with Fairlights! An ambition realized at the age of 24!
Sadly life took a different turn and I ended going into web development and am now linux sysadmin instead of a rock legend! :-)
Great history! Detailed explaination... Astronomy and Joy Division... 😍
Ah Joy Division, my favourite t-shirt company
DANKMEME Creations123 lmaoo
The most cliched fucking joke in the galaxy. How old are you son?
What about misfits ?
I'm more of a Dark Side of the Moon guy.
@Offiicial. I hope you use Trojans.
For me, by far THE best album cover of all time, has got to be............. *_Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures_*
It's just perfect. Simple. Captivating. Mysterious. Aesthetically pleasing. It's totally iconic. Love it.
The plot itself is one of a class of procedures known as a "hidden line removal" algorithm, so called because a sequence of curves are drawn, each overwriting the area of the previously-drean curves below the current curve in the background color, in order to make the curves appear opaque. These were quite popular visualization tools in the 1970s and 80s, and I've written at least one of these myself, so the cultural impact is definitely there. This is a definite "blast from the past", so thank you.
I suppose this is proof that art can come in many shapes and forms. It is surprisingly beautiful.
Very cool episode!
great video man
I did enjoy the story. Thank you!
me, before watching: cool, i love joy division.
after watching: i'm going to get a phd
Just got into this band
Thank you for this video
You have a very good musical taste Scott
got the T shirt... its nice when someone recognizes it and strikes up a conversation. in simple terms... it is the radio signature of a dying star.
Great video, very informative thank you for sharing :)
Thanks great video, I'm amazed how you remember data without looking your notes.
Despite being a Joy Division fan for 40 years - and a Professional Engineer for 30 of them - I didn't know that! I had assumed (like most I suspect) it was a plot from a Fairlight Synth. Thanks Scott!
Wow, fascinating. I will enjoy the music even more now that I know that I know this!
I bought my brother a cup with this on last Christmas. Brilliant album.
James Taylor On a cup? I hope it was scaled properly so each cup rotation is 1 period and the line is actually a spiral.
Yeah man, that was a really interesting video!
Thanks Scott. I just learned something about a fact that I didn't know I wanted to know 🎧
Great album!
I never knew it was Bernies idea. Interesting video.
Another great video. I think you're missing the tip of your Lego Saturn 5 launch abort puller rocket engine.
Hey scott, can i suggest something for a whole new carrier series of ksp? use umbra space mods, the whole pack. you would enjoy playing and i would enjoy watching and learning from you
I recall back in 1980 seeing the picture of this in an astronomy text book, recognised it immediately as the JD cover.
The same idea of signals from space inspired their contemporary single, 'Transmission' czcams.com/video/lAlurc_nyK4/video.html
and the Talking Heads' final track, 'The Overload', on Remain in Light.
czcams.com/video/6N4jGxgc3-o/video.html
I've always thought this image was a result of sonar study of the Mid-Atlantic ridge or some other deep oceanic mountaineous feature. Occures to be from the field of astronomy, not geology. Fascinating!
6:40 That's a really interesting plot! :D
awesome thank you
this was quite interesting
Pulsars really scare me for some reason. Just the thought of them... Gives me a phobia of sorts. I don't know why. Been this way since I learned about them.
There's a pulsar hiding under your bed!
Don't buy a Pulsar watch then...
They are just fast rotating because of momentum of living star, corpses mede of degenerate matter. They would fry you by theirs radiation, rip every electron from your body, then squeeze the rest to the size of virus or so. Sweet dreems...
Edit: Some film just for you
czcams.com/video/NhOVDDiSvMM/video.html
You can always count on Internet to deepen your phobias :D
Yeah. I am worried about pulsars too. What happens if a pulsar gets stuck while pointing at us?
What if one happens to fly through our system? We're fried.
HAL: My mind is going, Dave...
Ooh! THIS is a crossover I never expected?
My favourite space channel covering my favourite band?
Very cool
Please do talk about Martin Hannett's unusual recording techniques for hours, if you really have a lot to say I would enjoy that video
I think the best description of how strange Martin Hannett could be was a review of the movie 24 Hour Party people where he is played by Andy Serkis and described and the strangest character Andy has ever portrayed. Andy is best known for his role as Gollum.
Although as I understood it, 24 Hour Party People had quite a bit of creative license. He WAS weird, though. He'd apparently woken up Stephen Morris at 4 in the morning to re-record the snare drum on "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and went nuts with drum separation, the early digital delays and reverbs...
This hits me right in my Joy Division
Joy division and science. Best duo ever
Not sure why this made me happy ugly cry. Thank you 🙏
Mind Blown
because of the big red book in the bg i have to ask: which os do you use?
MacOS, Linux and Windows
Scott Manley Same here. Different one for different purposes. Windows for games or exclusive software, Linux for programming work, Mac on my laptop for programming on the go
Nice video. Could you link your sources. I’d love to read more
Make a video about your audiophile speaker/amp preferences
I am not the one to ask about that. I still use my 18 year old Sony DJ headphones
I'm a NewOrder nut. Several shows in Miami upcoming in Jan 2020!
I have always loved Joy Division!
Can you remake your ksp beginners guide from 5 years ago. Would love to see it :D
Yet another interesting video, it's decades since I heard the word 'arecibo'
Really? I’ve been hearing it a lot since it’s having a hard time getting back online because of the slow cleanup in Puerto Rico
Great story.
Will you please ID / link to the outro music? Thanks
Pulsars always remind me of Robert Forwards' neutron star duology - Dragons Egg and Starquake
I bet you could do an entire episode about Mr. Forward and all his contributions to space exploration.
cool!
"hand drawn data plots" no. no. no. I'm running away screaming. no.
It's crude, but effective. In fact, I learned how to measure the area under a curve by something similarly primitive. Print (or hand plot) the curve onto regular paper, and find the mass of the paper. Then, cut out the plot area. Carefully cut along the line of the curve. Then, put that cutout on a scale and determine it's mass. Since you can easily determine the mass per square inch of the paper (as you measured it before any cutting), and you know the mass of your cutout of the chart area under the curve, you can use that to determine the area under the curve.
This is a great way to help students visualize and understand what is meant by "area under a curve", because it is a literal and hands-on way to measure it. You only need to do it once for it to make the concept very intuitive, especially for the students who learn best by experience or visualization.
Joy Division? Dangerous Rocket Fuels? I'm in!
great great album
I have 4 pressings of this album, including a half-speed master. :)
Well, this now explains one of the screensavers in the XScreensaver package for OS X/Linux. :)
good story!
CZcams recommended that album to me just a few days ago, and it was my first time ever hearing it (or seeing the cover).
Weird.
If I was responsible for giving names to astronomical stuff I would have nicknamed CP1919 "the leet star"... a rotation period of 1.337 seconds? cmon, what a missed chance.
Henninger Henningstone Because Little Green Man #1 is an even more important name, especially if it really was an alien radio signal.
1:27 "Mundane stuff" sounds pretty cool to me tho ^^
thx for this ;) JD
I thought they took a screen shot from landing on LV426
Where's the damn beacon?
Hey! You are awesome!!
Wow I always thought they were mountains.
I like a lot your videos, the only problem is the sound level of the music at the end. Maybe you should reduce it a bit.
Nerdy 9 or 10 year old me saw that graphic as a 1in/2.5cm pin in a store and had to have it. To me, I recognized it as some sort of scientific/computer plot, which made it super cool. I knew nothing about Joy Division (who would have just become New Order at that time.) I think I got some comments walking down the street from people that this young kid liked Joy Division, but I had no idea what they were talking about. It wouldn't be until Brotherhood came out that I "discovered" them.
But if there are no real patterns to this pulsar data, why was it published in the encyclopedia where Sumner saw it?
wow!
I'm a dj going into techno. in your video about your vinyl collection, you mention techno. what techno artists do you like ?
The two most well known t shirt graphics. DSOTM prism and this
I really enjoyed this -- quirky and informative.
Wait ... musicians used Fourier transforms?!
Every time you listen to a chord and figure out what notes are in it you're performing Fourier analysis
They were doing Fourier transforms before it was cool. Note: it has never been cool.
Edmund Schluessel Your brain is doing it all the time yeah, and all kinds of other statistical analysis on all senses, to help us understand them without us trying - or even noticing. Pretty amazing imo
Nope, the frequency analysis (fourier-style) is performed mechanically by cochlea (part of the inner ear). But yes, our brain performs even more interesting processing later on :-)
Lord Nibbler, filters are usually done with IIR and FIR filter code, not via transforms which swap time and frequency domains.
Ahhh I love joy division
Sadly, I was a kid listing to the radio reports of LGMs in 1967 before pulsars were understood.
I thought it was a print of the rutt-etra video synthesis tecnique, i guess my observation was even more obscure than reality.