Even as knowledge spread about the band’s inspiration point–a preexisting pulsar data visualization (more on this below)–the true origin of that visualization continued to be a bit of a riddle. The cover image became an icon but remained mysterious. An interesting move for a debut studio album. No band name, album title or other identifiers. Drop this image (right) on someone’s desk and chances are they’ll reflexively blurt, “ Joy Division.” The band’s 1979 Unknown Pleasures album cover leaned entirely on a small mysterious data display, printed in white on black. Sure, I was familiar with the graphic–and I’m not alone.
