Just press P

Them's fighting words

2012-01-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

Brendan Reid, No more heroes anymore, 3D Polymer Print, 2010

The printed works of artist Brendan Reid are developed through formal explorations of oscillating spaces. Reid's 3D printed knuckle duster No more heroes anymore, 2010 initiates a shifting from graphic image to graphic object and back again.

Bloomin Virtual!

2011-12-07T01:53:00.000-08:00

Richard Falle, Phalaenopsis Momento Mori, 2011, Pigmented Inkjet Print

Richard Falle’s work Phalaenopsis Momento Mori pushes preconceived ideas of vector-based imagery and the recording of still life works within virtual space. Here the allusions to photo-realism and hyperrealism are prominent although momentarily acknowledged once one learns that the image has been described by observing the real object. Subsequently the 2D print resonates between traditional drawing methods for still life recording and the resulting depiction of form and space through virtual tools.

The work was initiated through discussions between the artist and myself - so to give you a bit of background here are some words from the artist about the making and conception of Phalaenopsis Momento Mori.

Making:

The image Phalaenopsis Momento Mori was created in Adobe Illustrator using a plethora of blends, meshes, transparency masks and brushes layered one on another and contained within clipping masks to create depth, texture and lighting effects. The image was drawn from observation rather than having traced over photograph or using the Livetrace function. Not an efficient method of generating this kind of image, I estimate it took at least 30hrs to produce, the challenge of working within the limitations of Adobe Illustrator makes the result all the more satisfying.

Conception:

How often have you posed the question, “What if…?”

For me, it’s been a vice, a pleasure and a muse since I was very young. An unrepentant daydreamer, the images I create are a product of attempting to visualise the props of those unlikely “What if?” scenarios, combined with an ongoing exercise in pushing the limits of what can be achieved using purely vector graphics. The limitations of vector art, creates images that seem to hover between photorealism and illustration and gives the subjects an uncanniness that accentuates their eccentricity.

Phalaenopsis Momento Mori by Richard Falle is a printed edition by CFPR Editions at the Centre for Fine Print Research.

On Vogue

2011-11-22T09:33:00.000-08:00

Arthur Buxton, 30 Years of British Vogue Covers, Pigmented Inkjet Print, 2011

Arthur Buxton is an artist who has recently been invited by CFPR Editions to produce a limited edition print at the Centre for Fine Print Research in Bristol, UK. Buxton's work engages with data visualisation methods that use colour extraction tools to explore trends in the natural world, painting and print media. Using open source software he extracts colours from photographs to create charts and timelines that typically display the five most common colours in each image as a percentage. In this instance, the removal of figurative and formal elements from an image present a series of colour harmonies and trends, alluding to sampling methods, information graphics, automation technologies, and objective forms of re-presentation.

The artist explains his most recent work produced with CFPR Editions; 'As the worlds most influential fashion magazine, Vogue acts as an ideal barometer for colour trends. Making use of British Vogue's own online online cover archive I use free software to extract the five commonest colours from each cover and chart them, in Illustrator, by percentage. Arranging these charts into a timeline we begin to see trends emerge - seasonal variations and also in the longer term, a gradual fashion for lighter hues. In my thirty years of British Vogue covers visualisation each column is a year beginning with September (the start of the fashion year) at the top and working backwards to October at the bottom. 1981 is on the right and the timeline runs through to 2011 on the left'.

Monumental Haptic

2011-08-27T05:15:00.000-07:00

Assaf Shaham, American Dream (ongoing project)

Assaf Shaham's American Dream series has been created using a flatbed scanner to record a number of printed images that depict monumental structures and buildings. The digitally recorded images in this instance have been 'monumentalized' further by intervening during the scanning process. Here the digital elongation is instigated by the hand in so much as the printed artifact (situated on the scanning bed) is momentarily moved whilst the recording is in progress.

Bleeding Pixels

2011-08-09T04:12:00.000-07:00

Paul Ferragut, Time Printing Machine, 2011

Ferragut's Time Printing Machine creates a pixelated aesthetic that is realized through durational deposits of ink on paper. By using a time based algorythm to drive a mechanical plotter Ferragut has devised a mark making system that optimizes the relationship between material absorption and image rendering. Ferragut explains "The time print device uses blotting paper with Letraset felt-pen. The felt-pen ink bleed in the paper for a duration relative to the grey value of a pixel. Every "time stain" gradually recreates any image in a pointilist style." The work was produced for Ferragut's MA show at London Central St Matins and further info concerning the artists activities can be found here

Already made

2011-07-31T05:55:00.000-07:00

Rob Myers, Urinal, 3D file

Like Duchamp Myers has enabled an art work to exist by an idea alone. In keeping with Duchamp's iconic Fountain (1917) the artist (Myers) has removed his hand from the work - albeit by employing another to create a potential object to exist, rather than appropriating an existing object and nominating it as art.

Myers Urinal was created by Chris Webber a software engineer who generated the model as three dimensional image so that the digital file could be physically rendered by a 3D printer. The file has been made available by the artist for anyone to download, print and sign (see thingverse download page). Alternatively (if you don't happen to have a 3D printer to hand) Myers 3D printed Urinal is also available to purchase through shapeways. Although technically Duchamp did not completely remove the Urinal's possible function I do believe Myers Urinal to be purely ornament.

Rebel Relief

2011-07-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

Sam Burford, Star Wars Relief, 2011

Sam Burford's Star Wars Relief is a timelapse photograph taken from the film Star Wars IV. Burford uses a bespoke capture device to record the film footage that is then rendered as a series of extended (and abstract) film stills (see example here). In this instance the image has been transformed into a surface relief made from silicon - a material previously used in film production to create sets and props. The relief work subsequently has allusions to pre-digital cinematic model making methods and aesthetic reference to the surface structure of the Empires Imperial Starships and Space Station.

The Pond of Tranquility

2011-07-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

Matthew Day Jackson, Reflections of the Sky, 2010

With presentation cue's to Monet's Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond Jackson's Reflections of the sky depicts a surface area of the moon that has been rendered by laser etching gypsum board (wallboard or Drywall) - a mass-produced material often used within domestic interiors. The etched pits and troughs that create the images surface topography also retain a gritty interference quality that exists somewhere between the production process and the transmission reception of such distant images.

Augmented Print

2011-05-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

James Alliban, AR Business card

Also see the application of augmented reality in German Suddeutsche Zeitung magazine publication and previous posting the Loaded Surface concerning the integration of the physical space with the digital environment.

Analogue after Digital

2011-04-17T04:09:00.001-07:00

Stefan Kubler, Aljarn, 2007, collaged postcards, 148 x 104 cm

Somewhere between Chuck Close's grid portraits that pull information inward and Tom Friedman's three dimensional interpolated packaging that explode outward. Stefan Kubler's Aljarn jumps forward within its two dimensional plain - a distribution process using multiple copies of a single printed image.

Loom Moon, I saw you standing alone.

2011-04-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

Jeff Sanders, Moon, 2007, Jacquard tapestry, 72 inch x 8 inch depth, Edition of 12

Published by Magnolia Editions

Jeff Sanders Moon 2007 is a tapestry work constructed from a digital image. Using a series of interwoven threads the tapestry has been rendered by a specialized, electronic Jacquard loom. To get a better view of the Moon see the work at Magnolia Editions.

Another wry smile

2011-04-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

Mike Ruiz, Replaced Mona Lisa, 2011, Oil on Canvas

As described by Mike Ruiz;

The Mona Lisa with the lady selected then put through Content-Aware Fill (a Photoshop CS5 tool that automatically generates content based on the existing surrounding content of the image and fills in selected area). The resulting image is a potential landscape as interpreted by the software. The image was sent to a painting manufacturer in China where an oil painting was produced.

Pretty fly for a print guy

2011-04-05T05:06:00.000-07:00

3D Printed Hovering Ornithopters

Project by Charlie Richter, Floris van Breugel, William Regan, Zhi Ern Teoh

The Ornithopter project uses 3D printing technology to construct complex wing structures that replicate 'natures design'. See video here

Interesting thread

2011-03-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

Devorah Sperber, Holodeck: Simulation Program..., 2007-08

The Human Printer: A Namesake Production

2011-03-01T03:59:00.000-08:00

Paul Laidler, The Human Printer.tiff, Produced by The Human Printer, 2010

“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” (M. McLuhan, 1964)

The Human Printer.tiff is part of a series entitled Print is Dead and was produced by a group called The Human Printer. The group consists of eleven individuals who specialise in reproducing by hand, the digitised rendering of a half-tone image that is normally associated with mechanical print processes. The Human Printer group has adopted the remote Print-on-demand facility for transferring digital files, although the potential to rapidly produce large editions is somewhat limited due to the extensive labour involved and the small-scale production of the studio. The Human Printer.tiff (see source file here) took just over two weeks from order to receipt.

In keeping with the mechanised half-tone print process, the digital image is printed as colour separations using the four printing channels of CMYK. To produce the final drawn image, each colour separation is traced individually on to a single sheet of semi-transparent paper so that collectively, the channels register with one another. The layering order of each colour follows the half-tone print procedure using four different coloured pens that correspond to each of the separate colour channels.The Human Printer’s transcription process includes the visual descriptions associated with reproduction through the mechanised image. The Human Printer’s rendering of a coarse photographic half-tone and its associations with automation are reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s 1963 comment “I want to be a machine”.

Further overtones of convergence between humans and technology reference a (hypothetical) Post-human future where a biological generation of humanity ends and technological one begins. The influence of science and technology upon the human condition has been a constant source of inspiration for the field of science fiction. In more recent times the fictional associations with phenomena such as implants, smart materials and cloning have accelerated the science fiction world toward are own.

The idea that a fiction can become functional through an associated process has been incorporated in to the selection of a specific technology for the work entitled Stretch out with your feelings.

The Human Printer.tiff is part of larger series of work entitled Print is Dead that continues the theme of humans as printers and the broadening definition of the print medium in the digital age. Collectively these works have contributed toward the development of paper for the Impact 7 2011 printmaking conference in Australia - further details can be found here.

Moire Paintings

2011-02-26T01:58:00.000-08:00

Hugh Scott-Douglas, Moire Paintings

2011-02-26T01:23:00.001-08:00

Ryuji Nakamura, Midget & Giant

A celebratory substrate?

2011-02-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

Pepon Osorio, You're Never Ready, 2009

Seen here at The Graphic Unconscious Exhibition 2010 (Part of Pilagraphika Print festival) Pepon Osorio has enlarged an x-ray image to produce an inkjet print on confetti.

Photoshoped Out

2011-02-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Riyo Nemeth, Sculpture, mixed media, 2010

Folding Space

2011-02-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

Riyo Nemeth, Fold II, 2010

Rendered in physical space, Riyo Nemeth composes and records the Photoshop gradient affect by printing and folding a sheet of paper.

Back to the Future

2011-01-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

Xavier Antin, Just in Time, or A Short History of Production

Magenta (Stencil duplicator, 1880)

Cyan (Spirit duplicator, 1923)

Black (Laser printer, 1969)

Yellow (Inkjet printer, 1976)

Human Interface

2011-01-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

Dynamic Print

2010-12-28T05:43:00.000-08:00

Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer from Visual Editions on Vimeo.

Jonathan Safran Foer, deftly deploys sculptural means to craft a truly compelling story. In our world of screens, he welds narrative, materiality, and our reading experience into a book that remembers that it actually has a body.

-Olafur Eliasson

Digital Paper

2010-12-20T03:47:00.001-08:00

NOTCOT: Esquire's 75th Anniversary E-Ink Cover from Jean Aw on Vimeo.

Bead me up Scotty

2010-12-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

Mirror Universe by sculptor Devorah Sperber

Corrupt Painting

2010-12-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

Andy Denzler

Location, location, location

2010-12-18T06:06:00.000-08:00

Megan Scheminske, You are here (ongoing)

2010-12-18T05:24:00.000-08:00

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Flickr City

2010-12-18T05:18:00.000-08:00

Inspired selection

2010-12-18T02:17:00.000-08:00

Powerpoint...... Shmower point!

2010-12-09T08:29:00.001-08:00

Analyzing Practice on Prezi

Drawing Systems

2010-11-29T07:10:00.000-08:00

Tim Head, Slow Life, (web A2 No.5) 2002 ink on Bristol Board

Unlike the remote precision of digital programmes the drawings carry the nervous rhythms and seismic waverings of the hand made

- Tim Head

Tim Head produces hand rendered drawings according to instructions similar to digitally produced images. The drawing is created according to the results of flipping coins. In this instance if the coin lands on heads a horizontal line is made and then a vertical line if the coin lands on tails.

A Colour Sucker

2010-11-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko in Red

The horizontal field of colours (above) are the twelve most common colours that appear in the web based photographic image of Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko. These colours have been automatically sampled by the open source program Colorsuckr.

Also see Arthur Buxton's Van Gogh Visulisation and Michael Demers Color Field Paintings (Browser).

Virtual Paint Jobs

2010-11-15T05:57:00.000-08:00

Jon Rafman, Picass0 B-2 Bomber, 2010

2010-10-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

Everything in the World, Laura Bergman, 1997
Bergman engages with the disappearance of the physical world through its coded description as binary information. The material world (represented by the pastel image on the outside of the paper roll) is gradually unraveled by the feed mechanism of a printer. Mounted above the roll the printer essentially uploads
the image in slithers of colour before 'downloading' the unravelled layers into a heaped mountain
of coded information.

2010-10-15T03:50:00.000-07:00

Richard Hutten, Playing with Tradition

Hutten plays upon the historical relationship between looms and computers, comprising the appearance of stretched pixels within the woven thread design.

Also see other analogue designs that invoke a digital process: Beam me up Scotty, I'd Buy that for a Dollar and Edges of a Hardcore

I'd buy that for a dollar

2010-10-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

Tom Friedman, Untitled, Dollar Bill, 2000

2010-08-20T02:31:00.000-07:00

Daniel Canogar Horror Vacui, 1999

Vacui's printed wallpaper instillation of repetitive hands invokes the experience of haptic technology through virtual environments that Vacui describes as 'the obsessive search for the tactile'.

Help me Rhonda

2010-08-15T03:40:00.000-07:00

Rhonda is an open source 3D drawing tool developed by Amit Pitaru

Beam me Scotty

2010-08-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

Gareth Neal, Anne Chair

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculpture to discover it. Michelangelo

Gareth Neal combines traditional techniques and forms with modern technology. Carved/ milled with a CNC machine the Queen Anne-style console 'sits' within its digitally rendered case. It is as if Neal's chair has been teleported from the Star ship Enterprise. Neal's Anne Chair image resembles the re-materialization status of an object in teleport where both matter and information momentarily coexist.

2010-08-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Mark Pernice & Christian Hanson, Photo Booth Mask, 2010

Originally a distorted portrait captured using Apple's Photo Booth application Pernice and Hanson construct the recorded image distortion as a three-dimensional mask.

R.A.M

2010-08-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

Shawn Smith, Double Dahl

Smith uses thumbnail images from the internet to construct three dimensional representations of the image and its rendered appearance in pixels.

Noisy Camouflage

2010-08-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

www.aiga.org

Camouflage conceals shapes by generating hints of many other possible shapes. In this instance camouflage hides signal with noise, todays camouflage renders realism obsolete.

Digital Recliner

2010-08-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

Nina Saunders, 'ever onwards' 2001

The interventionist work by Saunders and in particular 'ever onwards' presents the physically rendered form of Photoshops liquifying filter. The extrusion of the chairs arm beyond its usual form literally creates a slippage from one space to another.

Mountains of information

2010-08-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Luke Stronsnider Ansel Adams New Landscapes 2006

Stronsnider's artist book contains a series of Histograms of some of Ansel Adams' most powerful images.

Virtual Volume

2010-08-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

Rob Matthews, Wikipedia

Artist Robert Matthews has printed and bound 5000 pages of Wikipedia into one physical volume. The physicality of the virtual resource draws attention to its now 'virtually' redundant function, reminding us that some words were never meant for print

以古讽今 (yi gu fen jin)

2010-07-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

Yao Lu, New Landscapes

Joke about the present by referring to the past - Chinese proverb

Chocolate speaks louder than words

2010-07-26T02:22:00.000-07:00

Derek Stroup Candy 1 inkjet print 16" x 22" 2005

Stroup digitally removes the text from 'candy' wrappers revealing our relationship with the usually subliminal branding of such products. Global brand names are so imprinted in our consciousness we no longer read their texts but see their products.

The camera is the all seeing eye of God

2010-07-24T04:07:00.000-07:00

Brandon Lattu, Banqueting House, 2007

Lattu created the Banqueting House by photographing the interior of the Titular building in London and wrapping the photographic image on the exterior of a foam, polyster resin shape. The sculpture's form was created as a hybrid shape between the monocular perspective of a camera and the interior space of the Titular buildings Vitruvian proportions.

Watch the motion blurdy

2010-07-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

Upon first glance Maurizio Bongiovanni work appears as if the recording of the painted bird image has become corrupt during capture or upload. Instead the distortion is as much apart of the stretched canvas as it is an image on the computer screen.

'Burning' a digital image.

2010-07-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

Helmut Smit, Dead Pixel on Google Earth, 2008 - 2010, 82 x 82 cm burnt square, Photo by Jeroen Wandemaker

Helmut Smits presents the appearance of a dead pixel when seen through google earth from 1 km above. Here the digital meets the physical as Glitchy land art.

Fictional Graphics Toward Graphic Realities: The spread of the grid

2010-07-16T01:35:00.000-07:00

The creation of a parallel invisible internet of data floating over our every day lives.

Dan Malinger

Connected 24-7 we will become blind, all knowing oracles of an information world. The reflection of the this world on the surface of the eye will form an electric skin, a cataract, clouding our ability to see an experience the physical.

Future of the Screen: Terminator-Style Augmented-Reality Glasses

Future of the Web: Locatio, Location, Location.

Future of Newspapers: Profitless? Go Wireless

Mind Facsimile

2010-06-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

LifeNaut.com's mind over mater

Believable blur

2010-06-04T12:48:00.001-07:00

PIXELS by Patrick Jean from ONE MORE PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

3D computer graphics can be thought of as digital or synthetic photography. CGI simulated optical effects and virtual cinematography enhance one fiction within another.

Loaded surface

2010-05-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

Keiichi Matsuna, Augmented (hyper) Reality: Domestic Robocop

A graffiti generation and democratic tagging

2010-05-22T03:45:00.001-07:00

Are you Human, Aram Bartholl

Virtually concrete

2010-05-09T01:04:00.000-07:00

Marc Owens Avatar Machine

"I'd rather be a fake somebody than a real nobody"

-Tom Ripley

There is a five second segment (between 2:00 and 2:05) of footage where the avatar character enters a stairwell and descends a concrete corridor. For a split second the appearance of the virtual and physical world become inseparable.

Edges of a hardcore

2010-05-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

Pixxxel, Jean-Yves Leoigne for AMUSEMENT

The collaging of pixel resolutions within a ppi (pixels per inch) determined virtual image space forces one to get physical with the virtual.

Also see Is it a game, or is it real

Piety of the Polychromer and the forebidden planet of the prostitute

2010-04-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

The Sacred Made Real, The National Gallery London

Megan Fox as model Leile from the Jonah Hex Series

The realistic quality of the polychrome sculpture and their visual presence in the 17th Century raised concerns within certain religious establishments. These concerns were observed through the sculptures relationship to the real and the possibility that the faithful might worship the sculpture itself, not what it represented.

"I see you"

2010-04-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

Cayetano Ferrer, City of Chicago 2004-2006

Dutch: What's got Billy so spooked?

Sergeant Mac Eliot: Can't say, Major. Been actin' squirrelly all morning. That damned nose of his.... its weird.

Dutch: What is it? Billy? What the hell is wrong with you?

Billy: There's something in those trees.

Dutch: Do you see anything?

Billy: Up there ahead.

Dutch: Nothing. What do you think?

Billy: I guess it's nothing, Major

Spectator driven

2010-04-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Gael Odilon Paccard, Billboard

"I believe that the artist doesn't know what he does. I attach even more importance to the spectator than to the artist" - M. Duchamp

There is too much art to look at and generally there is not enough time to look at the stuff you want to look at. From this highway perspective art has to grab ones attention if only momentarily. The appearance of art in such times should therefore reflect the situation of its audiance.

The Gallery is a highway of images and art that knows its audience starts with presentation and work backwards.

Reality bites in the dentist theatre

2010-04-25T02:18:00.000-07:00

Mark Lyon from his Landscape for the people series

Hazy Meadows: For a few moments as I awoke everything felt ok, then I remembered.

It's the thought that counts......

2010-04-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Fake flowers in full colour, Hans Gremmen and Jaap Schereen, 2008-09

Interflora adjusted logo

Art is a gift - B. Reid

Making artwork that is informed by a technical process often seems far more relevant than the technical mastery of that process.

Cocooning Cartoraphy - a journey across a desktop

2010-04-17T05:14:00.000-07:00

Got up went to the bank, did a bit of shopping, read the newspaper, looked at some art, chatted with a few friends then got out of the house for a bit.

See links below:

Cocooning

Mouse Path

Also see Anatoly Zenkov's flickr page here

A life in print

2010-04-11T02:32:00.001-07:00

Built to be seen

2010-04-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

The Cartel, Ray Kinsella 2009, 3D Plaster Print - produced on a Z Corp Z printer

The model is an in between form, it shifts between disciplines

Ian Kiaer, 2009

Source: Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams.

Ray Kinsella is part of Build it and they will come a collaborative project between Paul Laidler and Brendan Reid that refers to architectural practice within a fine art context. The work contains a series of four quotes that have architectural connotations and are printed using rapid prototyping technology to create 3D text-based objects. The 3D printing process is used as device to create a series of self-referential dialogues within the work.

The work:

Kinsella (a crop farmer) is walking through his crop field one evening where he here’s a voice uttering the words ‘If you build it, he will come’. After pondering the meaning of the words Kinsella decides to construct a baseball pitch in his cornfield, despite the financial risks to his farm and family. Not completely assured as to why he is making the pitch the compulsion to do so out ways any thoughts of purpose or economic return for the pitch.

The compulsion to make has many parallels with art and its intended function (to be received by an audience). Toward the end of the film the baseball pitch becomes an attraction as it is deemed that ‘people will come’. Ray Kinsella was the first text piece that started this project and similar to the situation of the charactor Ray Kinsella the work had no intended audience, it was just a feeling that something had to be realised. In this instance the realisation was due to the fact that for the idea to function as an artwork it had to be more than an idea. As an idea the words ‘built and they will come’ remained a solitary and silent voice. For the idea to be ‘heard’ the text requires audience participation, therefore the work refers to itself as an object for exhibition - to physically exist in a space where ‘people will come’.

Also see the work in the exhibition 3D 2D: Object and illusion in Print at Edinburgh Printmakers

Digitally Remastered!

2010-03-29T05:35:00.000-07:00

Above image: printed hardback display copy version

Title: Is it a game, or is it real

Print Edition: Unlimited (Hardback & soft cover versions)

Process: Produced through Blurb.com

Above image: Original version of the work

The book work is a reinterpretation of David Bischoff's War Games. In this instance a 'remake' of the Penguin book that uses the film adaptation of Bischoff's novel as the cover image. Here the novels text is proceeded by its cinematic cover image. A reinterpretation that for many becomes the original, diluting any beginning or end - a reality made out of fiction.

The reinterpretation uses a digitized theme for intervention. Firstly the work presents the digital pixel aesthetic of the 1980's although in this instance the aesthetic is simulated, constructed out of its own image. Further more the books physical creases and folds become digitized, layered within the surface of the book cover. The physical remanence of the book gradually compresses into the image of the novel - consumed to become part of the fiction.

Secondly like the film/novel the artist book has distopian undercurrents concerning digital technology and our trust in its utopian design. The POD facility Blurb highlights the relative ease with which one can copy, reproduce, store and send digitized imagery/objects without any concern for origins or authenticity. Further more the rapidity with which this technology moves raises archiving issues concerning the compatibility and 'readibility' of digital information between old and new software. Data is either lost or interpolated - are we preserving the past or distorting it?

Is it real, or is it a game fuses past & present, text & image, fact & fiction as an artwork that is interpreted through its mediation. Subsequently the work invokes a self-conscious presence, perhaps referencing Bischoff's vision of computer consciousness.

Also see Edges of a Hardcore

Stretch out with your feelings

2010-03-07T07:13:00.000-08:00

P.Laidler 2009, Laser Engraving

The orb image depicted in the photo is cut with a laser into a black heavy weight cotton based paper. The image is of a ‘Jedi training remote’ from the film Star Wars. Here the training remote image is only visible because of the different surface depths that are burnt (by the laser) into the depth of the paper. Therefore the orb image is described by the papers darker fibers that sit beneath the (slightly lighter black) paper surface.

Form follows Fiction:

Upon our first encounter with the ‘Jedi training remote’ (in the film) we find Skywalker struggling to focus his Jedi abilities during the laser training exercise. There after it is decided that Skywalker should be blinded allowing the force to guide his actions instead of his eyesight or to 'let go of his conscious self'. Now blinded by 'the blast shield' Luke sees nothing except darkness (black paper) by using the force Luke is able to render the objects image in his mind (the image on the black paper). Although in his minds eye the object is devoid of physicality yet Skywalker has the ability to sense the training remotes presence in a space (the laser cut depth within the flat space of the paper). The realisation that the Jedi training remote is essentially both image and object creates a sense of mystery around the works visual presence, perhaps drawing further parallels with the order of the Jedi Knight.

Stretch out with your feelings is part of a continuing fascination with oscillations between image and object and fact and fiction. Subsequently I have an interest with film props and replicas where our associations with these objects are generally through their ‘on screen’ image presence. Film props are essentially objects that are preceded by their image, they are able to traverse fiction and reality when we consider that fact that they are 'real fictional' objects.

Stretch out with your feelings was conceived around the idea of creating a 'real fiction' where a physical object (an artwork) would be literally formed by some aspect of its fictional reference. In this instance the laser technology was used to initiate the traversing between fiction and reality. Here laser cutting technology refers to both the Jedi remotes fictional function (shooting lasers at Skywalker) and the actual technological process that renders the Jedi training remote visible in Stretch out with your feelings. The self-referential play around the idea of creating real fictions also has a resonance with the rapid advancement in science and computing industries. What was once thought to be only possible in science fiction is now becoming 'science faction'.

The work is included in The International Experimental Engraving Biennial 2011. See IEEB4 catalogue and video of the work installed at the IEEB4 Exhibition, Brancovan Palaces Cultural Center, Romainia.

Getting to know you

2010-02-28T02:59:00.000-08:00

It's a very ancient saying,
But a true and honest thought,
That if you become a teacher,
By your pupils you'll be taught.

Identifying practitioners as a means to positioning ones own practice alongside other artists can be an enlightening and frustrating experience. This searching method is often practiced in arts education when students are encouraged to think of their work in a wider context. For the average person this task often involves visiting the library and 'flicking' through books before photocopying pages then sticking the copies in to a sketchbook. This system generally continues until the sketchbook is filled, lost or the next project requires a 'fresh' sketchbook. Either way the compiling of source material can be somewhat adhoc and limiting with regards to how many people may see (and comment) on the collected source material.

One possible alternative for assembling the contextual element associated with the sketchbook is through flickr or more specifically flickrs favorites facility. The flickr site contains a wealth of imagery, ranging from famous art works to uncle Jim's stamp collection - there is no high and low division here. By building a visual data bank (that is confined within a virtual storage facility) the material is always accessible on line and is easily available to share with others (class peers, other online folk, tutors etc) . More over by generating a data bank of imagery in this way (and over an extended period of time) one is able to identify emerging themes, subjects and sensibilities that may have gone unnoticed using the physical sketchbook format.

By having a more democratized access to an individuals 'favorite images' one has a deeper insight as to why someone may produce the work they do and what kind of imagery motivates them. More importantly one is able to visually engage with the thinking behind an individuals words in the physical classroom. In most instance you feel like your 'getting to know them'.

Here are some of my Favourties from the slide show facility in flickr. Feel free to offer insights about my selections.

Also read The Machine Mediated Image within New Perspectives: Art & Design in the Digital Age

Virtuality

2010-01-30T02:44:00.000-08:00

Tom Friedman, Untitled (Total), 2000 & Robert Lazzarini, Chair, 2000

"The core challenge of digital art is to establish the relevance of the physical space in relation to virtual space"

John Maeda

Objects conceived with their digital image space intact - that then occupy our (none virtual) environment have a disorientating effect upon our sophisticated visual senses. Interestingly the inclusion of the mediatory experience (printed or electronic) within an art object has to some degree warranted ones physical presence with a 'virtually real' situation. Without this physical and real time interaction the oscillation between real and virtual space is lost. Here the reproduction process provides nothing more than 2D collage.

Prop Idol

2010-01-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

P.Laidler 2010

"One is playing with the world referred to by the image and the other world which is the image itself"

Michael Craig Martin, Reading with Shoes

Props

Many props are ordinary objects. However, a prop must read well from the house or on-screen, meaning it must look real to the audience. Many real objects are poorly adapted to the task of looking like themselves to an audience, due to their size, durability, or colour under bright lights, so some props are specially designed to look more like the actual item than the real object would look.

Object traces

Film props have an interesting presence as they are objects that are exceeded by their image. In drawing this kind of object 'the world referred to by the image' refers to yet another image world emanating from the object. What's interesting is the remnants of the object resides within the minimal two dimensional drawing of a three dimensional form.

See links in the image here.

Print on Demand

2010-01-21T11:13:00.000-08:00

A machine conceived for a single purpose

it knows no beginning nor end,

perpetually dormant and ubiquitous,

POD cannot and will not be stopped

Soon to be available near you.

Produced in appropriation with

(Thomas Demand & Michael Craig Martin)

The Surface of Experience - staring Boo Bakker

2010-01-09T02:12:00.000-08:00

Boo Ritson, The Air Hostess & Conrad Bakker, Commodity [Capital]

Paint becomes print and print becomes paint (the surface conceals and reveals). I have always experienced that the actuality of things is never how you expect them to be, whether this is a disappointment or a pleasant surprise the acknowledgement of the 'experience' is worth remembering. The inclusion of this occurrence within an artwork seems particularly poignant when print is used to disturb the surface - after all our original experience of artworks are often through its printed reproduction.

Crafted Words

2010-01-09T01:02:00.000-08:00

"Competence in craft and technique frees the artist to make the broadest and most specific statement; but craft cannot be the end statement. The tinniest automobile is much better constructed than the best work of art"
Edward Higgins

"A medium need not sit in isolated purity. It has always been my contention that the first objective is to achieve a compelling image, and that aim demands a felicity in its implementation.......In accordance with my practice of setting no limits on subject matter, nor stylistic languages of expression, I see no virtue in circumscribing the technical means of realization. The image will always be more important than the rationale of its execution".
Richard Hamilton

"It is no longer necessary to know how to do something, but how to have something done.."
Victor Vasarely

"My belief in process is that if you follow it, it will take you somewhere. But it's not the process itself that is important. I'm not just displaying what the process does. If the process doesn't make something interesting, then throw out the process altogether or alter it by intervening somewhere in the process."
Chuck Close

"I only ever think of technologies in terms of what I want to do with them and how I want something to look ....... I have to say I have limited interest in techniques I'm only interested in how they serve me"
Michael Craig Martin

"I don't think I would say a certain image asks for a certain technique. The mind can work in such a way that the image and technique come as one thought, or possibly one might say there is no thought. One works without thinking how to work"
Jasper Johns

"The manner of painting and materials used seem expendable to me just as long as they serve the idea"

James Rosenquist

Viva Venn diagram

2009-12-31T05:59:00.000-08:00

The Cadillac Whiz

2008-09-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

I recently read an old Wired article entitled The New Remasters (1996 maybe) during my searches for digital printmaker practitioners. Amongst other things the article got me thinking about two areas of print; firstly the values and distinctions assigned to reproductions and secondly the 'fine art' of reproduction.

The New Remasters summary

In short the article centers around the main protagonist James Danziger and his online fine art reproduction company Artland.com. There is also a cameo appaearence from the Iris Ink-jet printer and not to mention 'the world renown fine art printer' David Adamson.

Danziger's story unfolds shortly after seeing a digital print reproduction produced by Adamson for the photographer Joel Meyerowitz. The reproduction is produced with an Iris inkjet printer (a seminal machine within digital printmaking) that is of such high quality that he (Danziger) decides to investigates the Iris prints marketability. Danziger shows the work to a group of museum curators who subsequently cannot tell the difference between the Iris reproduction and the original print. Further more the Iris print surpasses any poster reproductions produced by museums and galleries - eventually Danziger teams up with Adamson and Artland.com begins producing high-end reproduction prints.

"Iris printing has become the Cadillac of digital reproduction" and "Adamson was a whiz at making Iris reproductions"

Amongst other commentators Danziger highlights Adamson's mastery of the Iris as an integral contribution toward producing the unique kind of reproduction that only Artland.com offers.

"The Iris print falls somewhere between self-betterment and decoration"

Around 75% of Adamson's reproduction process uses automated colour management methods, the other 25% is left to Adamson's experience and interpretation. The intuitive part (the 25%) of the the workflow is in the colour balancing which Adamson describes as the place where 'there is still some judgement involved'. Here Adamson utilises his experience of Iris printing by selectively bringing out crucial nuances that can get lost in the translation from the 'digital matrix' to the printed image.

The reproductive production within a fine art printmaking context got me thinking about a piece of writing entitled Endangered Species by the British Artist Richard Hamilton. Throughout Hamilton's experience of working with an array of traditional Master Printers he observed that the 'most admirable print craftsman' were those who had been involved in some reproductive endeavour. Hamilton summaries that the printer's transcription sensibilities were testament to the demands of reproductive work where the best printers "polished their genius on the mundane tasks of translating between media".

Hamilton has also been an advocate for selecting printers based upon what he considers to be their particular strength and therefore which printer is best suited to a specific project. More over it is often said in fine art printmaking circles that when an artist works with a specific studio/Master Printer they will be adopting the house style of that studio in their work.

I find the house style attribute intriguing when applied to high-end reproductions, copies, replica's or facsimiles. A reproduction created in this way assumes a richer provenance and therefore added value, maybe even a unique 'synthesised aura'

"I want the best copy. The only copy. The most expensive copy. I want James Joyce's Chamber Music. I want the 1907 version, the "variant" the first variant, [...] I want the earliest copy on record. I want the copy that is rarer than anyone had previously dreamed of. I want the copy the dreams"

Richard Prince, Bringing It all Back Home, 1988

Shore to be Shore!

2008-08-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Stephen Shore, West Third Street, Parkersberg, West Virginia, May 16, 1974

Found an interesting video link the other day that got me on to thinking about Michael Polanyi's tacit knowledge and photos amongst other things. The link is a short documentary entitled American Beauty about the Photographer Stephen Shore who describes elements of his practice. Shores methodology was the bit that subsequently reminded me of Polanyi's famous aphorism "We know more then we can tell".

With a certain sense of irony Shore (in his own words) describes a 'wordless' thinking that takes place during the creation of one of his photographs.

"Most people presume thinking has to do with words that are either spoken or thought, where as visual thinking does not have these words"

Shore goes on to inform us that he spent ten years learning the formal properties of photography. Because of this sustained period of learning Shore comments that he does not (consciously) need to think about these formalistic devices when taking photos. Similar to the forging of a 'tacit knowing' much of the previous conscious picture making strategies have receded into Shores subconscious, leaving mostly instinctual decisions. By essentially freeing the mind from directly thinking about these elements of the work Shore is able to 'think' about where he is going with the picture. This and other descriptions by Shore appear comparable to an iterative form of learning, common to the properties of tacit knowledge.

Other things:

Shore utilizes the inherent qualitative aspects of the large format photograph such as clarity and detail for example. These qualities provide Shore with the visual representation of what he describes as a 'heightened state of awareness,' equally pertinent toward his interest with a clear and focused attention of the everyday world.

One particular insight by Shore regarding the experience of time through the photographic image made me think of the photograph and its relationship to reality. Shore explains the speed with which we experience a photographic image when looking at the print (normally a few secs) - compared with the actuality of time that can reside within a photograph (exposure time). The experience of time through a photograph is allusive to us although visually acknowledgeable, as Shore summaries in saying "there is a sense of time being compressed in a photo". It is this reminder of how image and reality differ that got me thinking about my own interest in the prominence of image over reality.

"The camera in all its manifestations is our god, dispensing what we mistakenly take to be truth. The photograph is the modern world" - Thomas Lawson

With this in mind it's amusing to consider the photographic exposure length as having the prevailing influence upon the time with which we can only experience the images depiction of reality. Or a kind of synesthesia where the exposure length maybe experienced as 'weight', here a seven-minute exposure compared to that of a two second would feel lighter! There's possibly an artwork in here somewhere!

Revisiting the Past - Timeline

2008-07-28T22:31:00.001-07:00

Over the past few days I've been ploughing (maybe a slight exaggeration) through the various ways in which data can be presented and designed on the web - see del.icio.us account under the 'research' tag or the links below.

Two examples:

Computer History Museum

BBC British History Timeline - by far the coolest!

How to build your own:

timetoast

simile timeline

Upon reviewing my own previous attempts of bringing together and presenting various bits of data (using print), I can see why I subsequently thought that the results were somewhat stagnant in the printed format.

The specific revisited data in question was a timeline that I had tentatively been adding to every now and again (see Adobe Indesign screen grab example image above).

Brief outline of timeline:

The fields for the timeline that I considered to be most appropriate to the research (fine art digital printmaking) were divised into the following categories:

- technology - events - fine art prints - print studios - texts.

Each category contained an image and descriptors; including relevance (to the research), key words and spec details where necessary.

My first attempt at displaying a small portion of this information via the timetoast site (the easiest online facility I tried) can be found here or under Links > Technology Timeline.

First Post

2008-07-19T02:41:00.000-07:00

After attending an academic blog workshop recently (that highlighted many reasons as to why a research student would do such a thing) I find myself writing this sentence 'as a blogger'.

However getting to grips with the fact that these words maybe read by an 'unknown audience' I'll get on with my first post about the why's and the what's concerning this blog.

Based upon my thoughts, notes and attention in the blog workshop:

A public diary/ notebook

Allowing peers, supervisors, friends and family to know what I'm up too. e.g.

"I haven't got time this minute but you can have a look at my blog"

Benefits of the technology

Accessing the tools to create a dynamic notebook - collating previously separate information in one space - an archived and (mostly) accessible version of ones study on the web - making contacts and finding like minded people through other blogs.

Thinking about writing

Considering the audience and the thought process of instant publishing - writing styles - writing around the research - a space to consolidate ideas while hopefully not becoming overly precious about writing.

As a resource

For me personally it's important that the work I'm doing offers something outside of its journey to a red leather bound slab of words. It's often satisfying to know that something you have read, experienced or commented on has been of interest or even of use to another.

A brief blog overview

The fields of interest within this blog will be: art - technology - craft

The blog will help facilitate the process of research: writing - methods - content

The Peripheral: random thoughts along the way

Interesting related link below:

digital text