NTAE vinyl cover (marks along the bottom right edge)

[patj825]

Is there something hidden in the marks along the bottom right edge of the vinyl cover?
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/07...g?v=1481915836

Are they a cataloging numbers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Year_Zero ) like the 24.13.2 lines on this Year Zero poster?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../AIR_flier.jpg

Do they stand for... 7.4.4.3.4.4.3.3
Or... 744-4433 (doesn't work as a phone number with 800 or 888 area code)

Any ideas? Or am I making something out of nothing?

Originally posted in the "Something hidden in the audio of NTAE?" Post

[patj825]

I guess I am making something out of nothing.

[Warped_Savant]

I guess I am making something out of nothing.

Yes, you are.

[patj825]

Yes, you are.

I thought I might be.

[Ryan]

I think I'm gonna make you an omelette.

[d-signet]

It looks like many if the variations of the artwork are taken from a scan of the STILL artwork. More specifically, a shrinkwrapped copy of still.

The folds that you can see are unfortunately and teasingly similar to some of the code marks from the ARG, but I think that's all that it is. I must admit I also got my hopes up when I first saw them.

[Ryan]

^ What's with @Leviathant 's current avatar?

[Leviathant]

^ What's with @Leviathant 's current avatar?

What about it?

[tony.parente]

^ What's with @Leviathant's current avatar?

Lurk moar.

[Ryan]

Damn, I thought it was some NTAE reference and he was in on something with TR.

[katara]

^ What's with @Leviathant's current avatar?

Pretty sure it's some pre- With Teeth era art from 2005, back when the official site was covered in quotations from The Lathe of Heaven. 'There's a slight problem' was nin.com's 'page not found' text, while the white smudges are some kind of DNA code, iirc.

[Papagolash]

^ What's with @Leviathant's current avatar?

It's from the Bleedthrough days, 2 images pulled from the website back then put together.

[arsenic]

I found those marks intriguing since the beginning. Although they're unlikely part of an ARG I'm still wondering which technique did kraw use to make them.
My best hypothesis so far is that what we see it is paper fed through an old mimeograph or similar. The quality of the prints deteriorates after every cycle, so it's sort of degrading over time and every print is unique. Here are a few examples that I found online.

If I remember correctly, in an interview trent said that they've been recording sounds on cassette tapes over and over, and each recording would lose some details until the sound would eventually change from the first recording. So from this point of view, using a duplicating machine for the artwork would be a similar process.

Another hypothesis is that those marks comes from an heavily used flatbed scanner or photocopier's lid.
The text looks like it's added later during post production.