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Pulsar CP1919 Stacked Plot

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In 1970 Cornell doctoral student Harold D. Craft Jr. stacked 80 consecutive radio pulses from pulsar CP1919 into a single ridge-line plot, front waves occluding those behind — a data figure buried in a PhD thesis. Nine years later Peter Saville lifted it, inverted it to white-on-black, and stamped it on Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures. This system is that totem: pure white line on true black, vast negative space, no ornament — pure signal.

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  • OriginEngland (Joy Division / Factory Records) via Cornell / Arecibo, USA
  • Period1970 (thesis figure); 1979 (Unknown Pleasures cover)
  • DesignerHarold D. Craft Jr. · Peter Saville · Jocelyn Bell Burnell
  • MovementsScientific data visualization · Post-punk graphic design · Minimal data-graphic iconography

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