Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise: Visualized by Jax de Leon

For her senior project at Purchase College’s School of Art and Design, Jax de Leon visually deconstructed one of my favorite albums of all time.  Her last project as a student was a graphic representation of every note, word, instrument and voice from Come on, Feel the Illinoise! by Sufjan Stevens.  I’m kind of crazy over this.

Word Usage Circles for my favorite song on Illinoise

A grid of all vocal content. 1 square = 1 second.

Jax kindly agreed to talk to me about her massive endeavor. The interview and more images of the project are behind the cut.  The entire project is available for viewing on her website.

What were your requirements for your senior project and how did you decide that you were going to attempt this?

The requirements at Purchase for the senior project are extremely flexible, which was fantastic. It counts as 8 credits, which is a huge time commitment, so I was glad to have the freedom to create a project of my own. I’ve always been a passionate music fan, and have tried to incorporate music into as many projects and assignments as I could while in college, so it seemed natural to continue that theme into my senior project.

The prevalence of each note used in "Chicago"

How did you end up choosing Illinoise? Did you consider any other albums?

Illinois was the inevitable choice for me. I listened to it in the car on the way to my freshman year of college shortly after it was released in 2005, and it’s been my favorite album ever since. It’s such a complete album, not just a series of singles, and I’ve always thought of it as a beautiful piece of art that deserves to be listened to very carefully. I considered various other albums and artists (The Decemberists, Andrew Bird, even The Beatles, my first love) but I always knew I would end up choosing Illinois.

My favorite. The outside circle lists each word that follows "the".

How many times do you think you listened to the record while you were working on this project? How do you feel when you hear it now?

Wow, that’s a hard question! Before I started this project, I mainly listened to it all the way through without interruptions, but during this project it was completely different. For example, when working on the vocal album grid, I listened to a few seconds at a time and then went back and replayed those few seconds over and over to accurately categorize each second. There are sections of the album that have multiple voices singing different lyrics at the same time, and I bet I’ve listened to those parts well over 50 times. Now I listen to it in such a unique way. I know every word that’s sung, what color it corresponds to, where all the locations referenced are, and tons of other little details you only pick up on after such obsessive listening habits. Believe it or not, I’m not sick of the album!

A wall map of each Illinois location mentioned on the album

Do you plan on making any pieces of this project available for sale as prints? (Because…I want one!)

I would love to make prints available, but I’m not sure what the best way to produce such a small run would be. For the prints that were in my exhibition, I used my school’s large format inkjet printer, which I no longer have access to, so suggestions are welcome!

Would anyone else want a print? Leave a comment!

4 Comments on “Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise: Visualized by Jax de Leon”

• But what would Frank Lloyd Wright say? | Design Website Easy
  

  [...] But what would Frank Lloyd Wright say? Jun.10, 2009 in information "[Jax de Leon's] last project as a student was a graphic representation of every note, word, instrument and voice from Come on, Feel the Illinoise! by Sufjan Stevens." Read an interview with him here. [...]

  06-11-09 » 1:20 AM »

• barryc
  

  I found this on metafilter.com and really like the results. I’ve forwarded the link to several friends who work in design too. Keep up the sterling work.

  06-11-09 » 4:19 AM »

• But what would Frank Lloyd Wright say? | dv8-designs
  

  [...] But what would Frank Lloyd Wright say? Jun.11, 2009 in Feed News, Uncategorized "[Jax de Leon's] last project as a student was a graphic representation of every note, word, instrument and voice from Come on, Feel the Illinoise! by Sufjan Stevens." Read an interview with him here. [...]

  06-11-09 » 6:47 AM »

• All Good Naysayers – A Sufjan Stevens Site » Illinois In Infographics
  

  [...] Perfect Laughter interviewed Jax and asked why she chose Illinois: Illinois was the inevitable choice for me. I listened to it in the car on the way to my freshman year of college shortly after it was released in 2005, and it’s been my favorite album ever since. It’s such a complete album, not just a series of singles, and I’ve always thought of it as a beautiful piece of art that deserves to be listened to very carefully. [...]

  07-15-09 » 8:30 PM »

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