Hasta La Ideas

We love it when creatives play with the tenuous lines between physical and virtual experiences. Björk recently dove deep into this sort of exploration with the release of her newest album, Biophilia, as a suite of iPhone/iPad apps—leaving us with a (growing) treasure trove of interactive goodies. She collaborated with artists, designers, instrument makers, software developers (M/M Paris, Scott Snibbe) and others to create the production, based in themes of nature and technology, all with music as the guiding principle.

Björk’s music itself has grown organically over the years to incorporate greater complexity and symbolism, continually testing the boundaries of art, music, and technology. With Biophilia, Björk pushes herself and the concept of an “album” to the limit, creating a multi-faceted system for iPhone/iPad users. The album itself is an application (the ‘mother’ app), and each song is its own app with various interactive capabilities. (Only 2 songs are available at the moment – “Cosmogony” is free with the mother app, and “Crystalline” is $1.99.)

The Biophilia/”Cosmogony” app serves as the ‘home’ for the whole system—which, appropriately, is rendered as an interactive astrological system/hub for delving into the different galaxies of songs. The “Cosmogony” song introduces the album suite, complete with an introduction to the concept of the album by David Attenborough, famed nature film host (providing instant nature-geek cred to the project).

Each of the two songs available now, “Cosmogony” and “Crystalline,” can be explored through a variety of options. Put on headphones, and with the iPad, the experience of any of these options can be engulfing and mesmerizing. The interactive elements of each song relate to the song’s subject and structure, adding depth of visual, interactive and educational elements expertly matched to the sound and meaning. Additionally, colors and shapes were designed specifically to represent instruments and tones.

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