PRINTERESTING » printernet

Iranian Political Graphics: Internet Dissemination

Jason Urban — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:24:08 +0000

Voices in Green: Creative Practices in Response to the 2009 Iranian Presidential Election, organized by University of Texas art history doctoral student Roja Najafi, is “an archival exhibition focusing on art and activism around the Iranian Green Movement.” The show, recently on view at UT’s FAB Gallery, featured a physical collection of posters but all of the images were originally disseminated via the internet during 2009’s Green Revolution.

It seems important to note that the posters were printed far from the turbulent streets of Tehran. Historically, printed matter in the form of posters have had great value as agents of change and means of spreading messages. While that tradition does continue, this exhibition raises some interesting questions about the changing role of the poster in political protest. The advent of the internet and digital technology have undoubtedly had an effect- notions of authorship, authenticity, distribution and ownership all become malleable. In the case of Voices in Green, these posters serve as a teaching tool for a distant culture to learn of Iranian struggles for fair elections as opposed to functional documents of protest. Maybe it’s obvious to say but thanks to the web, people across the planet can appreciate near “real time” cultural artifacts as an act of solidarity or, perhaps to more cynical eyes, cultural tourism.

The exhibition is a solid one on any number of levels… as a collection of images, as historical documents, as a reflection on changing technology. Here’s a few more Printeresting posts about the Iranian election.

Above is a detail… the pixelation is quite apparent upon close inspection and stands in stark contrast to “fine art” digital images that seek to hide their underlying structure through greater resolution. The evidence of pixelation serves to make the images more immediate and augment their message. It speaks to the origin of these posters and seems appropriate to the subject.

A bunch more pictures after the jump…

All of the Articles, None of the Hyperlinks

Jason Urban — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:53:41 +0000

(via e v e r y o n e)

Information: from analog to digital, now from digital to analog. Rob Matthews has printed a 5,000 page book of all Wikipedia’s featured articles. Slightly less handy than the internet version.

An Open Question

RL Tillman — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:43:25 +0000

Posted on Yahoo! Answers: “Printmaking advantages or disadvantages?”

We have some knowledgable readers here at Printeresting. Maybe you folks could provide some answers?

What Does Google Know?

RL Tillman — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:56:37 +0000

Inkd Blog has posted the Top Online Printers as determined by Google PageRank. They claim that PageRank measures “how trustworthy a printer might be” because “it’s not easy to get Google to recognize your site as valuable.”

But is this really a good measure of a quality printer? I mean, Professor Print is way down the list, despite his traditional printmaker’s mustache:

Disclosure: I trust any printer with a mustache.

Ethical Dilemmas in the Printed World

Jason Urban — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:11:31 +0000

(Via Notcot)

This piece has all the right ingredients for a printeresting post… It’s printed matter. It’s a limited edition multiple. It’s signed and numbered by the artist. And it’s of questionable moral character!

Art Marcovici, Pay Online, book, edition of 100.

From Marcovici’s website…

In September 2008, I started to work on the Book “HOW I USED YOUR CREDIT CARD TO PAY FOR THIS BOOK ONLINE”. I have written the book together with a collegue who prefers to stay anonymous and it describes what the title promises.

The book has been paid for and sent out to 100 people in late January 2009 in 3 european countries. Each book is personally signed and numbered by me, I will not produce any more copies, so if you wish to know the content you will need to find one of the 92 people that still have the book. Among the 100 consignees of the book:

2 of the books did not reach their address and returned to me. The $9.90 USD have been returned to their account.
6 have not accepted the parcel and I have credited them the $9.90 USD including shipping.
10 have asked for an immediate refund and I have refunded the money (they have kept the book).
14 have reacted somewhat angry but accepted after some explanations, to keep the book.
22 have been happy to receive the book.
2 have sent me letters from their laywers (update).
44 have not reacted yet.

Bookmark It! FPO

RL Tillman — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:31:38 +0000

UnderConsideration has launched “For Print Only,” a design blog “for print only.”

…That’s a weird name. “Printeresting” must have been unavailable. Currently there are just a few posts, but if FPO is half as good as their previous blogging endeavors, it will be worth your bookmark.

WTF is a QR Code?

Jason Urban — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:44:01 +0000

Every once in a while a poster comes along that’s just too printeresting to ignore. Here’s a case in point…

Alan Hynes, Silkscreen, 25″x 18.5″, $30 ea (or all 3 for $75).

Alan Hynes has created a set of three, red-hot posters for the band Mogwai. Each poster features a black and white barcode design that can be scanned with a QR code reader to reveal information digitally. QR stands for “quick response” and QR code reader apps are available for your iPhone and other cellular devices. You definitely see QR codes on things in the US but apparently QR codes are totally pervasive in Japan and can be found on all kinds of printed material (advertisments, maps, business cards, etc.) as a way for people to upload information to thier mobiles. It’s interesting to see a symbiotic relationship between print and electronic media.

The distance between analog and digital gets smaller by the day.

Export to World

Kevin ONeill — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:16:41 +0000

Export to World is an attempt to maybe close the gap between real life and Second Life just a tiny bit more. So when you’re thinking: “that glazed donut looks awesome, I need that glazed donut.”, you can actually have it. Artists Linda Kostowski and Sascha Pohflepp took advantage of a couple of free apps (OGLE and Pepakura Designer) available online to export the geometry and textures of Second Life objects and then unfold them into printable sheets. From there you can print, cut and reconstruct “paper representations of digital representations of real objects”. Mmm.

Virtual Engraving for Fun and Profit

amze — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:40:56 +0000

Guitar Hero has given the average Joe the ability to feel like they are on stage playing their virtual guitar with/against some simulations of famous musicians. And in doing so it has unleashed the ambitions of millions of people who might otherwise learn to play an instrument. Well, finally someone has brought that instant-digital-gratification to all the scenesters out there with a keen interest in making (but not learning) the art of engraving. EngraveSoft from Pixation claims to “turns photos into fine art engravings”. Here’s an example of the software turning a picture of a squirrel (getting his/her nut) into a linear image of a squirrel (no mention is made of where the nut went).

This product and it’s promotional website has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Here is a link. The opening page of the site is full of images similar to the squirrel/nut pairing above. After getting your fill follow the link labeled, Technology, and one finds no end of insight into how the technology works, as well as some odd interpretations of print history. Here’s some selected quotes:

For over 500 years, engraving and intaglio printmaking have been used for some of the most beautiful illustrations ever created. The level of artistic craftsmanship and time required limits this form of illustration today to currency, stamps, stock certificates and very fine art. Enter EngraveSoft™. EngraveSoft is a computer assisted drawing program. The EngraveSoft drawing tools simulate the effects of scribing copper with intelligence. The tools themselves are smart!”

Internally, the EngraveSoft image is a vector file of engraving tool movements on a copper plate. EngraveSoft then transforms this motion file into a simulated intaglio print for raster (bitmapped) viewing.

EngraveSoft can greatly enhance your level of artistic craftsmanship.

EngraveSoft can drastically cut the time to create an intaglio like print.

EngraveSoft is Avant-garde.

If one had to decipher this all of this information, it seems that this software is a kind vector line art program with ‘onion skin’ (similar to animation programs) for enhanced photo-tracing and a constantly running filter akin to Adobe Photoshop’s Line Art filter. While all of these features can be found in some variation elsewhere, this is clearly the first package aimed at taking a bite out of the lucrative engraving market.

What more does one have to say? Smart tools. Intelligent scribing. Time saving virtual engraving tool movement, artistically enhanced simulated intaglio printing. And it’s avant-garde?

All of this could be yours for just under a thousand dollars. And after all that you still have to either print out your artwork on a home printer, take it to a local digital photo developer or laser engraving shop.

Somewhere in the Dutchy of Julich, Goltzius is turning over in his grave.

Prints Are Part of Equation for One Mathematician

Jason Urban — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:39:18 +0000

George Olshevsky explains these images on his site Nuts about Nets much better than I ever could. I’ll just say that he’s a mathematician who is using the computer to visualize geometric problems- complex polyhedral configurations called nets. The products of his research are beautiful and strange images that he then produces as digital prints.

…astronomers produce prints of spiral galaxies and interstellar wonders, and naturalists produce prints of butterflies, flowers, and other beautiful organisms, so how about a mathematician offering prints of geometrical objects? People should know that such things exist within the realm of human knowledge!