Hannah Diamond.
Imagining Perfection
Imagining Perfection
ENG
2021
Cactus
![]()
![]()
Excerpt of the interview:
“NZ: Your work greatly shaped the visual aspect of PC Music. It is clearly visible your touch also in Sega Bodega cover or in the visual materials of Sundara Karma’s latest project. They are all reminders of the aesthetic you created. Could you please explain your approach in the creation of the affective visual world initially created for your label?
HD: When A.G. Cook and I first met, I think we really found in each other a kindred spirit. The visual world I helped to create wasn’t so much a tactical approach, but more like an incidental perfect fit where I was doing my thing and A.G. doing his and our tastes were just super aligned. And there was just so much cross over in our interests and the things we were making. I have been thinking a lot lately, especially since Sophie’s passing, about how incredible it actually is that all of us involved in PC Music crossed paths at that time and that we found each other when we are all working out who we were. Those friendships and relationships have shaped me as a person.
NZ: What do you think about the potential of such imagery?
HD: At the time when I was making it, I didn’t realise how influential it could be. Or how much of it at the time felt so new and forward-thinking. I would get so upset when people didn’t understand, when people thought it was all ironic, or that I wasn’t a real person. I had always been working towards this aesthetic ever since I started making images, so to me, it felt personal and familiar.
Looking back on it all now and what I started, I feel like it was a pretty punk thing to do or try to achieve. I was aiming for these high budget looking, super glossy images but with no budget at all and barely any resources to make them. But I was going for it. I feel like that’s really what gives anything potential ⎯ the size of the ideas, how high you are aiming. It is weird now that I have made all this stuff. I feel like I have to find the next big idea to aim for to keep pushing my work forward.”
Read the full interview on Cactus
Excerpt of the interview:
“NZ: Your work greatly shaped the visual aspect of PC Music. It is clearly visible your touch also in Sega Bodega cover or in the visual materials of Sundara Karma’s latest project. They are all reminders of the aesthetic you created. Could you please explain your approach in the creation of the affective visual world initially created for your label?
HD: When A.G. Cook and I first met, I think we really found in each other a kindred spirit. The visual world I helped to create wasn’t so much a tactical approach, but more like an incidental perfect fit where I was doing my thing and A.G. doing his and our tastes were just super aligned. And there was just so much cross over in our interests and the things we were making. I have been thinking a lot lately, especially since Sophie’s passing, about how incredible it actually is that all of us involved in PC Music crossed paths at that time and that we found each other when we are all working out who we were. Those friendships and relationships have shaped me as a person.
NZ: What do you think about the potential of such imagery?
HD: At the time when I was making it, I didn’t realise how influential it could be. Or how much of it at the time felt so new and forward-thinking. I would get so upset when people didn’t understand, when people thought it was all ironic, or that I wasn’t a real person. I had always been working towards this aesthetic ever since I started making images, so to me, it felt personal and familiar.
Looking back on it all now and what I started, I feel like it was a pretty punk thing to do or try to achieve. I was aiming for these high budget looking, super glossy images but with no budget at all and barely any resources to make them. But I was going for it. I feel like that’s really what gives anything potential ⎯ the size of the ideas, how high you are aiming. It is weird now that I have made all this stuff. I feel like I have to find the next big idea to aim for to keep pushing my work forward.”
Read the full interview on Cactus