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Posted by Jason Urban on February 17th, 2010 | (Thanks to Jeremy Lundquist for the tip.)
We aren’t heading to Vancouver for the Olympics ourselves, but we thought we’d share news about this piece by Dutch artist Mark Manders. He produces indecipherable newspapers- materials that appear legible at first glance that prove to be gibbersh on close inspection. Is he making a statement about the impotent state of the newspaper, an object celebrated as historical icon but lacking contemporary function? That’s just speculation from a distance– maybe some well-informed gallery goer who actually sees the show in person can get back to us with their thoughts.
You can read a bit from the press release after the jump… Continue reading Mark Manders’ Traducing Ruddle
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Posted by Jason Urban on August 8th, 2009 | 
I saw this on Facebook (it pays to be connected) and thought it would be worth a quick post. I don’t have images of work from the show but it’s called Big Funny and it’s a celebration of the newspaper comic strip. The comic strip is another of the many peripheral casualties of the dying print-newspaper industry. The show is up at Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis and features 47 artists. While the majority of the artists primarily work in the comic strip form, the show also includes non comic strip artists like Jenny Schmid.
Read Henry Chamberlain’s review of the show here.
And if you’re really disappointed that you can’t make it to Minneapolis to see it (BTW, the opening is tonight), you can always buy the show catalog. True to the comic strip form, the 2000-run newsprint edition looks like a newspaper. The format is 16″ wide by 22-3/4″ tall with an image area of 15″ wide by 21-1/2″ which is a the same size as newspapers from the 1910-30’s eras…
Even the ads in Big Funny are cool! The ads for sponsors on the back of the paper were hand-drawn by editor Kevin Cannon, with the words for “the Source” ad penned by editor Steven Stwalley. The classifieds feature a mix of original limericks, artist bios, vintage ads from old comics and more.
The comic strip form itself, the ramifications it’s had on our cultural life, and its uncertain future are worthy of future Printeresting musings.
Posted by Jason Urban on April 12th, 2009 |
Sunday morning seemed like a good time for this one. Here’s a link to Polish architect-turned-graphic-designer Jacek Utko’s talk for TED (Technology Entertainment Design). More about printing than printmaking, the Death of the Newspaper theme has been reoccurring around Printeresting for some time now. Enough so that this inspiring talk about bringing newspapers back from the brink of death seemed worth a post. In this case, the key to saving old media appears to be rethinking it. Whereas most newspapers are convulsing readers at an alarming rate, through the use of innovative design, Utko has been able to actually raise his newspapers’ following.
Due to some technical difficulties, I’ve removed the inserted video from this post. You can click HERE to view Jacek Utko’s TED talk, Can Design Save the Newspaper? It’s worth following the link.
BTW, if you’re not already familiar with TED, it’s a great and mind-blowing way to spend some time. They have a catalog of over 200 talks available for viewing on their site (here’s another really good one). Topics vary but the talks are almost always fascinating.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
Posted by Jason Urban on April 4th, 2009 | Geez. Talk about kicking someone while they’re down. LandlineTV’s tagline is “comically relevant… for about a week or two.” These guys are timely. And funny.
Posted by Jason Urban on February 23rd, 2009 | This post shares its title with an installation/sculpture/printwork by Stephanie Syjuco currently on view (sorry- the show ended yesterday) at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, TX. Towards a New Theory of Color Reading is part of Syjuco’s solo exhibition, Total Fabrication. The piece consists of three offset “newspapers” in editions of 2000 displayed on palettes and free for museum visitors to take. Each of the three papers is based upon local Houston journals that cater to particular ethnic constituencies… El Dia (Spanish-Language), the Houston Forward Times (African-American), and the Manila Headline (Filipino-American).
Syjuco was inspired by the election of Barack Obama, America’s first bi-racial president, to translate newpapers geared to limited audiences into a more common language, in this case the language of color. Each newspaper was reduced to four colors: Black (newspaper info like headlines and pagination), Yellow (text), Blue (photos), and Red (advertisements). Syjuco’s color system was applied to the election day editions of each of the three papers.
Syjuco was born in the Philippines and lives and works in San Francisco, CA. According to the exhibition didactic, re-occurring themes in her work include mistranslation and misidentification, minimalist aesthetics, important historical moments, and the conventions of communication and museums.
This piece was really impressive in person- like a some kind of Bauhaus propaganda storage room. Gropius would be proud. Quite relevant and timely on any number of levels. It speaks to a hopeful impulse that communication can flourish despite cultural differences.
CAM doesn’t allow visitors to take photos (?!?) so the picture of the installation is from Syjuco’s website; the rest of the pics are from my take-home copies of the newspapers. See more of the beautiful page spreads after the jump.
Continue reading Towards a New Theory of Color Reading
Posted by Jason Urban on February 8th, 2009 | The mainstream printing industry is in trouble. It’s tangential to printmaking but it does have it’s ramifications (more than one university printshop will be scrounging for newsprint as free sources of end rolls dry up). It’s a complicated problem but the bottom line is pretty clear… newspapers are collapsing due to lack of subscribers and advertising dollars. But what can be done? Aside from making a ridiculous cartoons, are there any options? Well, there’s always government intervention.
A little more than a week ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a federal aid package for the French newspaper industry. In a move that is a temporary reprieve at best, Sarkozy introduced a multi-tiered plan that includes tax breaks, government advertising, and “giving 18-year-olds free subscriptions to the printed publication of their choice.” From International Herald Tribune…
“This support, which already totals about €280 million, or $362 million, a year, will be lifted by an estimated €200 million a year for three years under the measures announced by Sarkozy. This may buy newspapers some time, but will not solve their problems, analysts said.”
This seems troublesome (and crazy) on any number of levels. It definitely seems like a compromise of the press’ objectivity- can they bite the hand that feeds them? But beyond that obvious problem, it seems like a measure to deny rather than adapt to changing cultural (and technological) climate. There has got to be a better way.
Posted by Jason Urban on January 30th, 2009 | Friend of Printeresting KVH added a link in the comments section of Back to School that justifies its own post. It’s a creative commons printing video from 1947 that is available through the Prelinger Archives. It’s an impressive ten minutes and forty-one seconds of history.
Looking back at this printing occupational film puts the industry’s current condition into perspective. The narrator ends by saying, “perhaps you will find a place for your tastes and talents in printing, a vocation offering splendid possibilities for your life’s work.” It sounds pretty naive from today’s vantage point. It’s amazing to see what a powerful force the industry once was and the degree to which it’s been diminished.
Posted by RL Tillman on December 4th, 2008 | My very first post at Printeresting was about a new character in the comic strip Apartment 3-G: a dashing but rakish printmaker named Jack Davis. About a month later, readers had a brief glimpse of Jack’s handiwork. Since then we haven’t seen much of the only printmaker in comics history. But wait! It seems that Margo Magee is having some trouble with her art gallery:
Don’t you understand, Doris? Those damned prints will never pay the rent! Nonetheless, Doris obviously has great faith in the printmaking community, because guess who she calls for advice?
Money? Romance? What’s this guy’s endgame, anyway? He may seem like your knight in shining armor, but never trust a printmaker, Margo.
Posted by amze on November 13th, 2008 | 
In case anyone missed the spoofed New York Times that came out yesterday, here’s a link to the Times response article (the spoof website, which seemed to be mirroring the Times’ site is no longer online). Below are some quotes from that article explaining better than I what exactly transpired.
In an elaborate hoax, pranksters distributed thousands of free copies of a spoof edition of The New York Times on Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city, including Grand Central Terminal, Washington and Union Squares, the 14th and 23rd Street stations along Eighth Avenue, and Pacific Street in Brooklyn, among others.
The Associated Press reported that copies of the spoof paper were also handed out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, and that the pranksters — who included a film promoter, three unnamed Times employees and Steven Lambert, an art professor — financed the paper with small online contributions and created the paper to urge President-elect Barack Obama to keep his campaign promises.
With material and online support from the Yes Men, the small group produced thousands of copies and organized an army of volunteers to help hand out the free paper. Good stuff.
Posted by Jason Urban on November 5th, 2008 | As reported on NPR… the Washington Post was forced into a second printing of today’s paper due to huge demand! Click on the pic for a link to the story. From their article…
“You can’t put a computer screen into a scrapbook,” said Joyce Mutcherson-Ridley, 56, a D.C. office manager who came to The Washington Post’s 15th Street headquarters just in time to learn the first printing had sold out by 11 a.m.
 A line of people waiting to vote? Wrong! A line of people waiting to get a copy of the newspaper.
 And it’s not just DC. These people were waiting in NYC for copies of the Times.
So there’s value to hardcopy after all. An occasion so important people are buying newspapers- if that isn’t a testament to the importance of this moment, I don’t know what is.
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