Updated Aug 14, 2009 - 4:17 pm
EMP gets Spaced Out for its newest exhibit
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MyNorthwest.com
EMP is opening a new exhibit based around space-themed album artwork during the mid-century space obsession.
"Spaced Out presents a collection of about 120 vinyl record album covers from the '40's, '50's and '60's that all have space age or science fiction themes on the cover art. The genres represented are everything from pop to polka and classical to gospel jazz. But what they all have in common is the cover art, the design that all incorporate something about space travel, the moon, other worlds or even aliens and robots," says exhibit curator, Brooks Peck.
One example of an album in the show is from Mel Torme's "Swingin' on the Moon" album, featuring the lounge singer in front of a stark moonscape. Peck says the album is interesting because Torme is not someone that would be associated with space travel or science fiction but, at the time, the space age was a huge fad.
Another featured album is from a group called 101 Strings, which was a popular orchestra in the '50's and '60's. They put out a lot of albums with pretty straight forward classical hits, but then released an album in 1969, called "Astro-Sounds from Beyond the Year 2000." Torme says this album is a great example of a mainstream group that was "getting in on this whole space race, science fiction thing."
All the albums in the show go up to 1969, when America realized, first hand, space was not as "groovy" as we expected. "Prior to that time, when people were imagining space and space travel, they pictured everybody going to space, families going to space, young people going to dance and drinking crazy drinks and meeting sexy aliens," says Peck. Space themed album artwork took a turn in the '70's.
In the exhibit, there are listening stations where people can sample tracks from the albums. There is a whole range of music genres: kid's songs, pop songs, and a song sung by Leonard Nimoy, who has cut 12 albums.
There are also a couple of musical instruments to play with. People can experiment with a theremin, among other space age sounding instruments. On opening day, Saturday, August 15 which is also Family Day, EMP is going to have professional theremin players demo the instrument.
On the non-musical side, EMP has built a large interactive magnetic art exhibit. It is a life-sized record album on the wall with cut out elements from many of the different albums printed on big pieces of sheet magnet. People can put them together to create their own space-themed album cover.
The show runs from August 15th, 2009 to January 3rd , 2010.
