#ideas development

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

GRAPHIC DESIGN - IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 12: REPTILE

EDIT: I’m after being informed by Andrea (https://k00234566.tumblr.com/) that the worm I found is actually a New Zealand Flatworm, a particularly invasive species not common to our part of the world that should be reported when found. Thanks Andrea! I knew it was up to no good…)

As our protagonist’s plea for someone to end his suffering go unanswered, he naively attempts to salvage some shred of his former self, or perhaps even find a way out of what he already knows deep down is inevitable, his destruction. 

We can assume from the opening lines that the woman this man encounters is not the same as was hinted in ‘Piggy’ or ‘Closer’, but more than likely a prostitute:

“she spreads herself wide open to let the insects in
she leaves a trail of honey to show me where she’s been
she has the blood of reptile just underneath her skin
seeds from a thousand others drip down from within…
oh my precious whore”

The images of ‘honey’ and ‘insects’ always stood out to me in this song. I decided to get a little on the nose with it and take a jar of honey out to the field across from my home. I dripped the honey on to different surfaces to see what kind of effects I can get. I was happy with the way the colours and textures of the rusted gate and aluminium pan complimented the honey, but I wanted to get some insects involved if I could. 

I turned over as many rocks and pieces of garbage as I could, and succeeded in finding many different ant colonies around the place. However the pictures of them I took on my phone were underwhelming as they were too small to make any sort of impact with the camera i was working with. 

Then I lifted a rock and found one of the weirdest things I have seen in recent memory. What appeared to be some sort of worm that looked like an eel started slithering out from under the rock. Perhaps I just don’t get out enough but I have never seen a worm that shape and with the strange off-white border around it. 

I decided to take some pictures and while the worm made it’s way, a nearby slug suddenly shared my curiosity and started following the worm. I caught a few pictures of their encounter and then let them on their way. 

I adjusted the contrast on the photos and found it difficult to decide which one to use for a cover. I looked forward to bringing them into photoshop to add the NIN logo and get a better sense of which one was most appropriate. 

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
GRAPHIC DESIGN - IDEAS DEVELOPMENT
TRACK 11: ERASER

Here are a few of the different options I have settled on for the ‘Eraser’ single artwork. I loved the way each arrangement looked and felt in black and white with the contrast turned up high and the exposure turned down. They have a real industrial feel and brought to mind the visuals used on the Nine Inch Nails tour promoting ‘The Downward Spiral’, particularly  the video that I have attached below. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

PARK: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 9: BIG MAN WITH A GUN

After all the doom and gloom of ‘The Downward Spiral’ it was nice to get out of my room and good for a walk in the lovely weather. 

While I wanted a break from the project, I couldn’t help myself and brought with me the logo stencil, in case any opportunities presented themselves. 

I was glad I did in the end because I captured some great shots, but among my favourite was the one at the top, where the ‘golden hour’ had stretched my shadow across the ground. 

I decided to play with the idea of “a big man with a gone” and so I pointed my hand to my head as if I was holding a gun to it. 

I got some strange looks in the park, hopefully nobody thought I actually had a gun. Had I been back home in the states, it could have been a scene. People in Ireland though are pretty good at minding their own business, for the most part. 

‘THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ - NINE INCH NAILS

FOUND FOOTAGE: IDEAS DEVELOPMENT

TRACK 9: BIG MAN WITH A GUN

Once God is overthrown and the mechanical side tries to take over, our protagonist looks for meaning by establishing his right to dominion over others. 

‘Big Man With A Gun’ came under fire by conservative politicians who either thought the song was taking a shot at their right to own guns while also putting it in the same box as a number of hip-hop acts who at the time were being targeted for obscenity. 

In the March 1996 issue of Spin Magazine, Trent Reznor said the following about this song:

“The record was nearing completion. I had written those lyrics pretty quickly and I didn’t know if I was going to use them or not. To me, Downward Spiral builds to a certain degree of madness, then it changes. That would be the last stage of delirium. So the original point of “Big Man With A Gun” was madness. But it was also making fun of the whole misogynistic gangsta-rap bulls**t. … I listen to a lot of it, and I enjoy it. But I could do without the degree of misogny and hatred of women and abuse. Then, my song got misinterpreted as exactly that. It was probably a lack of being able to write. I’ve been taken out of context, and it’s ridiculous.“

I spent some time (probably too much) looking through youtube for videos of varying instances of gun violence caught on tape to include in a potential music video compilation I was going to make for this song. I wanted to manipulate the graphics and words on news reports and cctv footage to recite the words of the "Big Man With A Gun.” Unfortunately that didn’t come to fruition as my computer isn’t quite able to handle video editing.