Somewhere in your work office resides a dusty old piece of technology called the fax machine that was once used to send and receive messages and documents. While it's safe to say that the fax machine is now antiquated, the electopop band Yacht is giving you a reason to get excited to use the machine again.
To promote its new album I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler, Yacht faxed 300 lucky fans the album cover art on Tuesday.
Designed by the band's collaborators Daniel Bogan and Matthew Spencer, fans first had to download the web app Fax.Ink that found the user's location to send a fax to the nearest office retailer that still has fax machines, businesses like FedEx Office, Staples, and The UPS Store. Each fax of the new album cover art was individually numbered, and also came with a cover sheet essay about the history of fax art written by the electropop-alternative band.
"We did this because there are 17 million fax machines in the U.S. and they're not having any fun," the band writes on the app page.
Once the first 300 people picked up their copy of I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler's cover art—which is a photo by Luke Gilford—the web app stopped working. The band then revealed the cover art in high resolution via Twitter for those who would rather view it using modern-day technology.
HELLO WORLD. We made a new album & this is the cover photo by Luke Gilford. Now high-res on @GooglePhotos: https://t.co/IsOXmE9QbD #ITTFWBC
— (@YACHT) August 11, 2015
While the fax art is a cool memento for fans, Yacht decided to use the antiquated technology because band member Claire L. Evans was interested in the way fax machines use sounds to translate images. Plus, it was an interactive way to connect with fans, merging their creativity with technology.
"The fax machine existed in a time when it never really got to be explored as something beyond a business tool," Evans told The Verge. "What can we do to take that technology and activate it again? What can we do with the tools that we have now that didn't exist in the peak of the fax machine's popularity?"
Yacht began as a solo project from band member Jona Bechtolt who chose the name based on an education program, which stands for Young Americans Challenging High Technology. Evans joined the band in 2008, and they have made five studio albums leading up to I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler.
The band previously announced its latest album in July by sharing geographical coordinates on Google Maps that lead fans to a billboard with the album's tittle. Last week, members also revealed the track list on BuzzFeed in GIF form.
Via: The Verge
Photo: YACHT | Facebook
