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CMIKB

This September Mixed Greens presents a window installation by Scott Kiernan, “CMIKB,” which apparently is structured around Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue and Leap into the Void projects.

Kiernan discovered that [International Klein Blue] is impossible to reproduce digitally. However, the internet provided a wealth of approximations and as a result, Kiernan set out to create IKB in CMYK. He estimated what percentage cyan, magenta, yellow and black actually make up IKB. The result is the three identical images that comprise the window installation—one printed only in cyan, one in magenta, and the other in yellow (there is no black in IKB). Each print uses only the percentage of pigment that IKB would use.

(source)

Human Interest Gyotaku Story of the Year

The Times‘ Arts Section shares a heartwarming tale about Jack Schwartz, President of the Nature Printing Society, who has dedicated himself to the art of gyotaku.

Last year, one fish print even served a humanitarian purpose. Mr. Schwartz was asked by a fourth-grade teacher in Shoreham to memorialize an angel fish, a class pet that died after what Mr. Schwartz called “an overzealous cleaning of the tank.” The children were bereft.

So he made the print and brought it to class. “They were so happy; they gathered around and looked at it and talked about how it looked like the fish,” Mr. Schwartz said. “And that now, they didn’t have to take care of it.”

Viva Los Videos! Batman! Batman! Batmaaaan!

Two clips from the old Adam West Batman show prove that printing is only good for one thing: CRIME.

In this clip, Bruce Wayne sets up a sting operation, convincing The Joker to print some fake money on his old letterpress. The Joker is posing as a comic book publisher. Bruce says “I chanced to be thumbing through one of the comic books you publish and it struck my eye that the inks you use are identical to the inks used by the United States Treasury.” (what?) The dynamic printing action starts at 3:25.

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This next clip features a second-rate villain called “Colonel Gumm” who counterfeits stamps. Just watch the first two minutes:

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His henchman’s name is “Reprint”!

Part-time job for Baltimore-area print enthusiasts

A little bird just told me that the Baltimore Museum of Art is hiring a street team of ten “enthusiastic individuals” to “make appearances as Andy Warhol in his iconic fright wig and sunglasses at events throughout the Baltimore area.” PDF of the hiring description here.

Before you audition, you may wish to review some of the great film portrayals of Warhol. For my money, you can’t beat Bowie in Basquiat.

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Unless, of course, you count the time Warhol played himself on The Love Boat.

Ink Cartridge Dioramas: The Final Frontier

A UK-based retailer partnered with an artist named Faith Pearson to create a series of dioramas using recycled ink cartridges. You can see more (including Godzilla) here, but this Starship Enterprise is really the best one:

(via)

Thoughts on the Faddishness of Printmaking: GQ

When, do you think, was the last time the word “printmaking” was printed in an issue of GQ? My guess is that it was a long time ago, perhaps when the magazine went by its original moniker, “Gentleman’s Quarterly.” In that era, gentlemen and printmaking went hand and hand (unlike today, when our beloved art form is besmirched by ruffians, scamps, and scoundrels).

It took the Levi’s Workshops to bring this matter to the attention of well-dressed men everywhere:

Scan courtesy of Brian Garner.

PRINTERESTING SITE NEWS: Tweet Beat

PRINTERESTING is always ahead of the curve when it comes to social media. We started our Facebook page just forty-five years after the site’s inception. And we’ve been on Tumblr longer than many, many people who moved to Brooklyn last spring.

In our ongoing effort to stay “with it,” we have established a Twitter presence!

Mostly, our remarks “@printeresting” will be for the Twitter die-hards: if you follow us on Twitter you’ll be the first to know when we post content to the main page or to the Printeresting Notebook. But, we’ll also be using Twitter to get the word out about exciting events like our recent COPY JAM! in Chicago, or an upcoming super-secret project planned in St. Louis. So if you’re a Twitter user, and you want to know what we’re doing, follow us now!

Viva Los Videos! Newsies

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Good printing scenes, but that song is just awful.

Junior Printmakers: Printers Park

Apparently last week was the official opening of Printers Park, a playground in New York City inspired by printing equipment. The park was constructed on property owned long ago by Richard March Hoe, who invented the rotary printing press in 1843. NYC Parks and Rec sez:

The southern portion was reconstructed in 2009 with a playground modeled after the design of the rotary printing press: graduated steps mimic the cylinders of the press, and the white pathway running through the park alludes to the continuous roll of paper that was fed through the press.

Last April, the Times featured this photo of the park’s super-fun printing press jungle gym:

Kids can pretend they’re INK!!

Concept Printers

Sometimes concept designs seem quite practical, like maybe they’re just around the corner. Take Yuexen Chen’s design for a new type of printer. The idea is that the ink cartridge itself is the printer. Everything is self-contained, and it’s recyclable. Sure, it’s only good for small prints, but the technology seems within reach:

On the other hand, there’s this dreamy concept for a “nanobot printer” by Daniel Kussmaul. It’s based on a system with four movable “base stations” for tiny CMYK nanobots that roll out and deposit the ink. An animated visualization at the designer’s website explains the system better than these photos:

Is this really practical? I mean, you could probably get the base stations for cheap, but obviously HP would overcharge for replacement nanobots.