Indigo's painted record

This item was spotted on a forum devoted to collectable vinyl. I like how the accompanying text simultaneously takes the piss out of the muso-like craving for rarities and yet it still demonstrates the emotional attachment that we can have to objects. And aesthetically? Well, if this was a proper release by Sonic Youth, Radiohead or Tortoise, people would be fighting over it. I already think it's brilliant.

"Here it is! The Devil's Most Prized Record!!! So RARE! A limited edition of ONE!!! Unplayable brown SPRAY PIANT colored vinyl with hand drawn SKULL graphics and signed by the artist himself, my son Indigo!!! This record means more to me than any other record in my collection. It has hung on my wall since my boy did this for me several years ago. He must have been about 5 or 6 or so years old or so when he did it. This one will stay with me FOREVER!!! Jealous? I know you are..."

Also not to be confused with the picture disc, I've spotted a wide range of other artists that have been using vinyl as their canvas. I'll post some of those subsequently unplayable works in due course.

The 'totem'

When I blogged the Matthew Dear 'Totem' format earlier, I didn't immediately make the connection between it and the totems used in the film Inception. The latter are devices that the characters use to help determine the difference between dream states and consciousness and include the pictured spinning top that behaves in a specific way that helps clarify what is and isn't reality. [I'm trying not to post anything that might be considered a 'spoiler'.]

This and Dear's totem perhaps generates a whole dialogue about how we attach meaning to objects. Getting deeper into that discussion, it might be off-putting should it verge on the quasi-religious yet ultimately we are actually talking about a question of faith. Belief allows for the perception of items as having deeper symbolic meaning: most often associated with decorative artefacts with examples dating back to the Stone Age. Yet functional products can take on significance outside of their primary purpose. The research that I've undertaken over the past couple of weeks increasingly supports the idea that music formats do this: transmitting information aside from the audio and visual material that they carry. This cultural theory aspect is possibly something I need to consider further to refine my rationale. Maybe while noting its relationship to Benjamin's "aura" and Baudrillard's "simulacrum".