OUGD601 / Practical 4

A start has been made with the weaving. The colour way pink and blue (IK blue) has been chosen to mimic a current colour way trend popular with digital graphic design.

Recreating the letter on the loom means that it’s smooth straight lines are lost and instead replaced by a zig zagged version. 

I have attempted to make an early start with this as I am aware it is a slow process. So far I have struggled with getting the angle of the stem on the A - a lot had to be un-done and tried again - a lot of trial and error at the start. 

(In the 2 last images I am attempting to interpret the angle of the stem depending on the number of weavings per line)

OUGD601 / Primary Research / Interview with Nick from The Print Project

Q: Describe a particular project that you have done that epitomises what is special about printmaking and why.

A: At the heart of what we do is community - so we love working on projects that can have a positive impact on people, either to better their lives or to make something that inspires people into finding new passions that they never knew they had. It sounds lofty and a bit airy fairy - but there's a strong ethical and social conscience that runs through everything we do. Some projects that have been amazing and very rewarding have been: The Leaf Label 20 box set - printing from trees - taught me loads about wood - which has now lead on to me actually making my own wooden type. Double Dagger - a publication that looks at what letterpress printing is in the digital age - ie - what the fuck is the point of it and why would anyone be doing it when they can do it all digitally? Golden Cabinet - I started the Shipley gig collective in 2013 with 3 other people to bring live music to the town we live in that hadn't had 'a provision' (whatever that means) for live music - it's now nationally recognised & much loved (and I made a load of posters for it..!) and has raised the profile of the Kirkgate Centre (the venue) and provided it with much needed income that then supports refugees and other people in need in the local community.

Q: Do you think some people think that hand made design (like letterpress printing for example) is elitist?

A: Quite possibly. But one of the things we do is to fuck with that at every possibility - so for instance we get kids of all ages and backgrounds getting involved with printing - it provides a discussion point about history, place, time and ideas and who knows maybe it'll inspire someone along the way to get into it and do something amazing.

Q: Do you find this slower process of printing / using your hands rewarding?

A: Absolutely. It teaches us about ourselves. It's methodical. Meditative. INFURIATING. But there's nothing quite like pulling your first print - seeing the ink on paper, the subtle impression of the type and crispness of imagery that no inkjet (or risograph! haha!) can ever give you.

Q: Do you think the value of hand-made design is rising or decreasing in the digital age?

A: Rising. We keep getting told that people are sick of the digital world and need to escape it to make things with their hands. This isn't just related to print! It's time to switch off the internet and go outside and enjoy life as it is, not as some form of curated online lie! But having said that we are VERY AWARE of how much the internet has played a part in what we do. That's the brutal irony. Now we just have to find a way to learn to switch it off and carry on regardless.

Q: Some would argue letterpress printing could be reproduced digitally for cheaper and faster, what do you think to this?

A: Absolutely, but then it's merely an 'aesthetic' - and cheaper and faster in our books is not a good thing. It's soulless and tedious and partly why we're in the mess we're in right now. So letterpress to some extent is a stand against the rising tide of 'cheaper, faster...now' - because we know in our hearts that if we want to make life more fun and creative we have to slow down and stop and listen to each other and make better things that aren't driven by making money or to put it very bluntly about 'fucking people over to survive'.

OUGD601 / Practical 3

The '@' symbol would have been preferable but due to the curves this would be extremely difficult to do on the loom. This is why the letter 'A' has been chosen instead as it is the first letter as the alphabet so could be seen as the 'default' letter - and it is easier to do on the loom due to the straight lines. 

Helvetica has been used as this is seen as the standard digital font and the colour IK blue has been experimented with due to its association currently with digital graphic design. (There is a category for pieces of design using this colour on Trend List).

Slightly different layouts were experimented with through quick sketches before creating it on the computer. 

OUGD601 / LRNCE

'LRNCE is a Belgian fashion label based in Marrakech.The label was founded in 2013 by Laurence Leenaert. Her work is inspired by the cults and rituals of tribes. LRNCE aimes to show a sense of cultural influences of traditional handcraft reflecting on a contemporary outlook of a mix between both worlds aesthetics.'

LRNCE being influenced by the cults and rituals of tribes directly links to Benjamin's writings on cult value, LRNCE has used this old value and put it into a contemporary context, using hand-made techniques. 

OUGD601 / Practical 2

After the tutorial the practical element of the project has been decided, I am going to produce something that is currently normally seen as digital and produce it in a hand-made way. 

A weaving is going to be how it's produced. This is because after looking in to GUR and the Bauhaus weavings I think it's a clear hand-made technique and has an organic appearance. Also it is a slow process which means I will be getting a deeper understanding on what Honore writes in In Praise of Slow. 

OUGD601 / Practice Samples

The technique of weaving has been practised on smaller experiments so that the technique is well revised.

OUGD601 / Practical 1

Ideas for practical side of project:

Either a study of lots of different experiments made by hand - screen prints / weaving / ceramics

OR

Something that is normally seen as digital but putting it in a hand-made context, e.g:

- Creating the '@' symbol in a hand-made way (something that is recognised with computer technology) 
- An inDesign grid
- A letter / number
- The Apple logo

OUGD601 / Hannah Waldron

"My graphic and narrative-led image-making has been applied across a range of media from print to textiles, at both a personal and architectural scale. I have found weaving to be a natural process to complement my grid-based image-making."

OUGD601 / William Luz

"SOMEWOW is an evolving collection of ceramics and one off pieces by William Edmonds, exploring the place where function meets flippancy."

All of William Luz's creations have a hand-made aesthetic to them, however, the ceramics in particular show this the most. They are made completely by hand so every finger indentation is visible. Every piece is a one-off and as well as the shape looking very hand-made the painting is done in a very abstract, organic way too.

On ‘Look Up’, an online print store and a platform, they describe Luz's work;

“Will’s practice is “concerned with drawing,” and even a quick glance through his work reveals a finely tuned facility for line. It lends an organic, handmade quality to his work, and even his ceramics translate the language of drawing from two to three dimensions. From a distance, his screenprints exhibit the crisp line and even colours one might expect from a process designed for mechanical reproduction. However, up close there’s a discernible wobble to the line, as most of his screenprints are created using hand cut paper stencils.”

OUGD601 / The Haptic / Ellen Dissanayake

The haptic = to use your hands

Ellen Dissanayake's The Pleasure of Meaning and Making (1995) is about the positive impacts using your hands and creating things have on us. She explains it is an inherent primal trait.

"Such specialized anatomical and cognitive abilities, and their emotional/social correlates, indicate that surely the use and making of things manually--that is, handwork--is something we were born to do." 

"One could say that nothing recognizably human is achieved without hand use--writing, painting, carving, sewing, building. If we haven't realized this before, it is only because in our lives machines do these things for us--but until very recently, human lives were made by human hands." 

"Early anthropologists called us Homo faber--the making, or toolmaking animal. The earliest humans were the earliest craftspersons: to be human was to make. It can even be said that, unlike other species, we use tools not just functionally but, even as babies, to leave our mark on the world, to achieve our ideas. The ability to use tools lets us leave a permanent trace of our actions and thoughts for others to see."

“There is an inherent pleasure in making. We might call this joie de faire (like joie de vivre) to indicate that there is something important, even urgent, to be said about the sheer enjoyment of making something exist that didn’t exist before, of using one’s own agency, dexterity, feelings and judgement to mould, form, touch, hold and craft physical materials, apart from anticipating the fact of its eventual beauty, uniqueness or usefulness.” 

OUGD601 / Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

It was recommended I look at the essay by Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935).

Main ideas in the essay:

- Benjamin argues that technology is changing art, just like our changing perceptions.

- All art is replicable, which brings into question the worth of the art if it is not “original.” 

- Copies do not duplicate that original aura. 

- This continuous reproduction affects our apperception and causes a decay of the aura

One of art’s functions is its value: its “cult value” and its “exhibition value.” 

Cult: Originally, art was meant to be magical and hidden from the outside world, a “magical” projection of early man’s inner aspirations.

Exhibition: Modern “emancipation” of art has increased the chances for it to be on public display as means for profit and economy. 

- The shift between original “cult value” and modern “exhibition value” has thus transformed the overall quality of the art produced.

OUGD601 / Studio Herron

Studio Herron, is a weaving studio and textile brand that produces both lifestyle textiles and fibre art. With a vision to revive American textile manufacturing by combining an artistic process and traditional craft methodologies with responsibility and respect for the land and people, Studio Herron crosses both hand weaving and industrial mill weaving technology. Each are thoughtful works of art for everyday life, utility and comfort.

OUGD601 / Analogue Printing

The Print Project 

On their website they describe what letterpress means to them;

"To us, letterpress printing is not an aesthetic, it’s a rigourous and methodical process which produces tactile vibrant printing that will make you want to kiss a goat, stroke a pig or say hello to Jesus." 

This analogue method of printing leaves a finish which is unachievable digitally, and is more about the process rather than 'fast and cheap'.

OUGD601 / Bauhaus Weavings

- The Weaving Workshop of the Bauhaus, (1897–1983) was as somewhat of a “female ghetto,” had many prejudices and misconceptions to overcome during its existence. 

- Most of the artists of the day regarded weaving was less than “real art”. 

- Women were seen as incapable of working in areas regarded as more demanding, such as painting, metalwork, and sculpture. 

- Although the Weaving Workshop was regarded as inferior artistically, it was the first workshop able to pay its own way through the production of its students, in keeping with the Bauhaus goal of achieving financial autonomy through its own efforts.

Looking at this weaving (Figure 1) in the Bauhaus archive was inspiring to see the difficult and time consuming handwork that had gone behind the piece. This has influenced me in that I may experiment with this process in my practical side of this research project.

Gunta Stölzl and Benita Koch-Otte 

'Benita Koch-Otte and Gunta Stölzl were lifelong friends. They were the most talented students in the Bauhaus weaving workshop and established themselves as leading weavers of the modern movement in Germany.'

Figure 1