AVP 2019 Holiday Card

Did you receive an AVP holiday scratch off card this year? If so, what scene is beneath your scratch off? If it’s a fireside scene and the clock reads 12 then you won the grand prize. If it’s a fireside scene and the clock reads 6 then you won the runner-up prize. If it’s a snowman scene it means you have won our appreciation and admiration. All of you are AVPeeps and we treasure you.

If you are a grand prize winner or runner-up prize winner email us at [email protected] with a photo of your winning card and your shipping information. Happy Holidays and New Year!!!

Grand Prize: A limited edition, signed copy of Said the Computer to the Scientist from illustrator Tom Rowe. This book of illustrations captures the essence of the meaning behind our holiday card this year (read the explanation below). The grand prize winner will also receive a mug with the snowman and fireside illustrations seen below, created by by Stephanie Housley from Coral & Tusk.

Runner-Up Prize: A mug with the snowman and fireside illustrations seen below, created by by Stephanie Housley from Coral & Tusk.

Explanation: The holiday card this year is a reflection on the larger role that technology plays in our lives beyond the function that it serves. At the point of creation, all technology (broadly defined) fulfills some need. Take, for instance, the design of the television illustrated on our holiday card this year. Clearly aesthetics was central to the design of such a television, ensuring it brought the world into our homes through an attractive piece of living room furniture any family could proudly display. Aside from aesthetics, the state of the technology at the time likely drove whatever other design wasn’t purely aesthetic: the shape of the television screen, or the push button navigation and control panel. Today, in retrospect, and with the dramatic changes in how we consume media, both the intentional and unintentional choices that went into creating the televisions of yore give us a sense of time and place, evoking a quaintness and sentimentality that never could have been foreseen by the original designers.

The let it snow text on top of the scratch off is — as you might assume — a reference to the television “snow” illustration that it’s printed over. Television “snow” and its accompanying crackling audio, both caused by transmission signal noise, were once considered an annoyance, greeting those that fell asleep and awoke in front of the television after all programming had ended for the night. Or something to be quickly passed over in search of a signal containing an actual television program. Today, many people wouldn’t even know what a mention of television “snow” was in reference to. It will not be long until the reference point will go extinct entirely. This one time annoyance, that was simply a reality, will soon be, if it’s not already, looked upon with warm feelings, as a shared experience among older generations, taking people back to another time and place.

The illustrations revealed beneath the scratch off speak to the warmth and sentimentality that underlie and evolve out of the technology that we use in our everyday lives. Often considered only as a tool in the present, technology and the associated aesthetics are interwoven and imprinted in our minds as part of life events, time spent with loved ones, aesthetic trends, political moments, societal norms, and so much more.

Artwork by Stephanie Housley from Coral & Tusk (scratch off) 

Unscratched

Scratched Snowman Scene

Scratched Fireside Scene with clock at 6 o’clock (runner-up prize)

Scratched Fireside Scene with clock at 12 o’clock (grand prize)

Back of scratch off

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