Makingprint: A Performative Art of Touch

Abstract

This paper proposes that by introducing digital discourse into printmaking, through disruptive behaviour one can expand the potential of print. Reflecting on the sensual qualities of the surface of print by:
 •exploring the unification of the body with technology
 •contemplating the power of medium materiality through technological collision and hybrid practice.
 This paper investigates what a photograph can be in hybrid form, querying the thingness of the medium through technological convergence. Contributing to an examination of the dimensional qualities of print giving rise in the viewer a desire to touch the artefact. 
 Informed by the earliest forms of photographic print (the photogram cameraless process), through key texts by Virginia Heckert and Geoffrey Batchen, the paper will examine the works of Marco Breuer and Letha Wilson and will draw from my own experiences as an artist and researcher. 
 My research (as an artist and writer) has centred on an exploration of contemporary technologies that question how evolving digital technology can complement and extend the production possibilities of more traditional print media such as photography and printmaking. This links directly to my interest in how expanding medium materiality can inform new methods of arts practice.