In the 21st century we are now in the Late Age of Print and truly within a Digital Age where all forms of art and design exist. Before this, the traditional forms of artistic practice included painting, sculpture and poetry. New media and mechanical revolution paved the way for textiles to be produced on a mass scale, print production, art reproduction, printed pattern wallpapers and mass-manufacture. The aura of the traditional art practice was seen as being something superior, mystical, magical; the product of geniuses and great men reinforced by the art institutions of the time. Fine art began to diminish because of the creation and multiplication of printing and reproduction means. New forms of art smashed through the elitist club and fought for culture and representation of everyone. Collectives were emerging among practitioners, William Morris and Merton Abbey Mills for example, where independent studios and spaces were organised as a form of rival practice against entrepreneurial practice. New tech was implemented into anti-capitalist art projects that proposed different ways of organising the world.
In the illustrative discipline there has been a noticeable return to to older methods of handmade production, as well as in other forms of visual communication such as graphic design and animation. Screen printing, linocut, wood block printing, letter press and mechanical type on old machines are taught in art schools now - whereas in the '90s everything was purely digital as that was the landscape we were entering at the time. There are whole print festivals dedicated to graphic arts showing that there is a real taste for it again. Why is the case? Why retain an interest in these methods of production? Especially since we have easier to use, quicker, reliable, and proficient techniques to hand now. Why retain an interest in the hand-made?
The first proposal is that using analogue methods provide an explicit retreat from instant gratification. In a world where we can pull up any answer on our phone from a Google search, and there are apps and software that can recreate any digital technique we want - things have become dehumanising, and using older methods of production is a symbol of rebellion against our world of mass-information and quick turnarounds. The Slow Movement, as an example, is a manifesto to contemporary society. It is an attempt to reclaim your life where humanity should re-engage with raw materials, think about and consider the world around us and connect with other people using physical capacities. Avoid rushing when going about your daily routine, even in creative production, and seize the opportunity to enjoy what is around you in its simplest forms. It is about doing less with an increase of quality; taking regular breaks, clearing space, not being reactionary, being nostalgic and changing the structure of our society. Locally sourced methods of production are favoured, implementing a small network of producers and consumers, using grown ingredients rather than pre-packed foods, and working so that you are more environmentally conscious. Learning skills and taking charge of your own life rather than having everything handed to you instantly.
Similarly, there is a Slow Fashion movement reacting against the quick overhauls of the catwalk and seasonal trends. Throughout high street stores, every retailer is selling the same clothes - even the same things that were sold a few years ago - but as consumers we are tricked into thinking these are new things that we need. Retailers rip-off the couture and mannequins are dressed to show you how to assemble your dress sense. There is no individuality; no personal identity. Slow fashion introduces the idea of using local, independent producers and / or using what couture discards and would eventually become landfill. It focuses on humanity and prioritises a model of practice where economic growth is not the most important thing. Creativity is! Genuine human qualities of sharing knowledge, being affordable, being inclusive - not unlike what William Morris was doing back in the day. Slow Design follows the same principals - focusing not on the end product or the quick solution, but how a practice can relate to environmental issues in a harmonious way. Progress rather than regression. Print culture is important because of these subtle policies in the example Slow Movements.
Flyers from the Leeds Print Festival in 2013 uses letter press printing and vintage poster techniques, harking back to older methods of production and presenting a feeling of nostalgia and the simpler times of yesteryear. Anthony Burrill's posters were inserted into the circuits of mass markets and makers of capitalism, who have no thought for real creativity or art, commenting on publicity, society and the environment. It created an interesting rupture in advertisement. Their works appropriate the aesthetic of print culture but are explicitly political in nature.
The Print Project reclaims old industrial printing presses and puts them to use again. The studio space looks like a museum of defunct machines from 500 year old ago. The machinery, which has been killed off by modern society, is reused and provides comment on sustainability, how our culture has no regard for maintaining and reusing anything and disregards the old in favour of the new. It is an educational project as well as a graphic design project where part of it is about using the antique machinery in modern briefs but part of it is also about setting up workshops so that the public can learn the process and see their prints being made in front of them. It's not just about nostalgia, The Print Project explores the ways in which old-fashioned print mediums can take on the digital age on its own terms. Older processes such as glyphs, letter press and woodblock are blended with glitches of the media age - testing the aesthetics of old and new.
The first proposal is that using analogue methods provide an explicit retreat from instant gratification. In a world where we can pull up any answer on our phone from a Google search, and there are apps and software that can recreate any digital technique we want - things have become dehumanising, and using older methods of production is a symbol of rebellion against our world of mass-information and quick turnarounds. The Slow Movement, as an example, is a manifesto to contemporary society. It is an attempt to reclaim your life where humanity should re-engage with raw materials, think about and consider the world around us and connect with other people using physical capacities. Avoid rushing when going about your daily routine, even in creative production, and seize the opportunity to enjoy what is around you in its simplest forms. It is about doing less with an increase of quality; taking regular breaks, clearing space, not being reactionary, being nostalgic and changing the structure of our society. Locally sourced methods of production are favoured, implementing a small network of producers and consumers, using grown ingredients rather than pre-packed foods, and working so that you are more environmentally conscious. Learning skills and taking charge of your own life rather than having everything handed to you instantly.
Similarly, there is a Slow Fashion movement reacting against the quick overhauls of the catwalk and seasonal trends. Throughout high street stores, every retailer is selling the same clothes - even the same things that were sold a few years ago - but as consumers we are tricked into thinking these are new things that we need. Retailers rip-off the couture and mannequins are dressed to show you how to assemble your dress sense. There is no individuality; no personal identity. Slow fashion introduces the idea of using local, independent producers and / or using what couture discards and would eventually become landfill. It focuses on humanity and prioritises a model of practice where economic growth is not the most important thing. Creativity is! Genuine human qualities of sharing knowledge, being affordable, being inclusive - not unlike what William Morris was doing back in the day. Slow Design follows the same principals - focusing not on the end product or the quick solution, but how a practice can relate to environmental issues in a harmonious way. Progress rather than regression. Print culture is important because of these subtle policies in the example Slow Movements.
The Print Project reclaims old industrial printing presses and puts them to use again. The studio space looks like a museum of defunct machines from 500 year old ago. The machinery, which has been killed off by modern society, is reused and provides comment on sustainability, how our culture has no regard for maintaining and reusing anything and disregards the old in favour of the new. It is an educational project as well as a graphic design project where part of it is about using the antique machinery in modern briefs but part of it is also about setting up workshops so that the public can learn the process and see their prints being made in front of them. It's not just about nostalgia, The Print Project explores the ways in which old-fashioned print mediums can take on the digital age on its own terms. Older processes such as glyphs, letter press and woodblock are blended with glitches of the media age - testing the aesthetics of old and new.
The Pink Milkfloat, a creation of Richard Lawrence, houses a simple hand-operated press that is transported to events allowing visitors to create keepsakes of their own. People can invest in and learn about printing processes rather than just buying a print and not seeing the craft behind it. It adds value - human and social value - to creative practice when an audience can participate and engage. People have a much more bonded relationship with the artist when they understand the complexities of your practice. In creative practice we are making social relations happen; creating networks, providing fun, happening upon chance meetings and sharing skills. Building collaborations rather than transactional relationships, in a participational world. How many social spaces are there where we don't have to buy something? Social relationships are seen as commodities by big corporations such as Starbucks, who rely on your financial transaction while providing you with the shared warm space, with a treat, for £5. Is this what friendships are built upon now?
The Glastonbury Free Press, an off-shoot of The Print Project, marries the audience as journalist and reporter. A Vandercook printing press is housed in a tent and used at every Glastonbury festival to create a free political newspaper; designed by the people for the people. Visitors come to the tent, talk to the printers inside about burning issues and turn it into a physical newspaper edition. It is typeset, printed, documented, co-authored, spat out and relayed around the festival free of charge. A relational piece spotlighting equality, inclusion, co-authorship, participation. Older methods of communication are partnered with modern opinions and sharing that with festival-goers. It isn't just about a technical process that is a legitimate and valid politics to it. Humanising politics in a digital age. Reclining and reusing what our society and culture has thrown away in a creative way - a defence of revivalist practices. Post-print culture?
In the digital age there is an infinite amount of software available to use where people can edit their photographs, create their own fonts, paint their own pictures. If we are angry at that then are we being the elitists? Instead, the majority share cat pictures on Tumblr and Facebook. New technology should be providing creativity and inspiration - the possibilities of infinite knowledge. There is an argument to be had that actually the resurgence of hand-made production methods have recreated aura again; aura is the admiration for the traditional, using a high level of skill, mystification around it, respect for the master craftsman. In our digital environment screen prints and letter press, rather than just drawing on a tablet, has aura now. The mechanical arts have aura. There is a negative politics to this as, while small print runs will allow you to have aura and a solid community of consumers, things can be sold more expensively. However, the real radicalism and the real social consequence is to be found in digital printing. We are in an era now where the radical practices are through digital printing; the capacity of a computer to steal any image and share it online for free. An interconnected network of creatives outside the studio partaking in a commodity exchange.
Print culture has the capacity to be exponentially greater within the digital age. When used right and used for the benefit of humanity it can achieve some amazing things. The digital age takes the art out of the gallery and into the online landscape so that we no longer need to behave in a certain way in a space and towards a piece of work. The parameters are removed and we are free to browse and behave at our leisure. There is a politics to popular art and to print culture. Digital print is not just about the output but the capacity to steal and use knowledge and imagery and use it to our own gain - just like Duchamp did when scribbling on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa - but it is the death of aura and a revolutionary shattering. Art being deactivated and recycled in a democratised way with contemporary mass-movements being reinstated.
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