COP 1 Lecture 7 - Print Culture & Distribution - Part 2

Today's lecture was a follow on from last week's lecture about print culture.

We picked up where we left off by talking about how digital techniques are replacing handmade traditional ways of print. iPads can now do things such as replicate brush strokes, so there is less need for traditional methods. Digital creation means instant gratification - now clients are wanting a quick turnaround, for a quick profit.

There is a movement which is based around the rebellion against dehumanising culture and is in praise of slow creation. This idea originally came from a man called Carl Honoré, The slower the design, the more the quality is increased. This led to the slow food movement, which is against fast food and quick production and more for slow cooking and food production. There is also fast fashion in today's world - clothing that is traded in large volumes with copied styles from catwalk design.
Slow design is about being individual, environmental and sociocultural.

In 2011, Anthony Burrill created a set of posters that he put up in a popular flypostering wall in Lisbon. This commented on publicity and society issues that are highlighted by this mass print culture.

The Print Project is a movement that consists of workshops that teach people the process of traditional print. This is nostalgic and explores the way that traditional print can take on the digital age, which is a way of stopping traditional techniques being lost in history.

Similarly, The Pink Milkfloat is a project in which a man tours around in an old milkfloat and shares letterpress printing techniques with members of the public, giving them a chance to learn how to create and produce their own handmade prints.

We talked about how social relationships are now commodified, and how everything is now about a transaction i.e going for a coffee with a friend. We looked at a 1991 art piece based around this idea, Untitled (placebo) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. We also talked about Barbara Kruger's work about consumerism being used for the Christmas Selfridges campaign in 2007.