Screen Print

After my chat with Max, I realised the importance of image in my position brief. This was the starting point of my project. I had decided to re-create my initial digital image thinking about the technological limitations that inferred it’s visual such as its pixel grid size and limited colour pallete, I wanted to see the effect of recreating it in a more deliberate, analogue format. After thinking about woodblock printing and looming, which in my mind both have a link to the digital – the flatness of the image produced using a woodblock print always looked like it was displayed on a screen to me and looms use a similar grid like format to translate an image (something which I learned at the Annie Albers exhibition at the Tate a while ago). In the time frame I had left, both were unrealistic options. However, I compromised and decided to use screen printing, there is the idea of a bridge between the digital and analogue due to the fact that both methods of image creation use pixelation. I previously decided this would be a good way to get out of my purely digital system approach and create visuals that have more initial distance than my previous working method. Working in an analogue fashion really helped my thinking process

I went to have a chat with a print-room technician. I was made aware that there would be some difficulty lining up the layers as everything would have to sit perfectly due to the small pixel size. After I did this print series, having gained a better understanding of the process I realised there would be a way to do it spot on, using like a bleed area to tighten up areas where white space may be present.

Initial layers B/W, colours have to be made into layers and separated before being put onto the screen

The inconsistency of the print become an interesting deviation from the perfection of the digital.

Due to the number of prints created (about 25) I animated them to see if the differentiation would create a kinetic property to the image like the ink is flowing on the page in a way. I have yet to find a good way to do this, I can create artificial frames to the animation on Photoshop by gradually merging two pictures together. When I did this I found the animation became too smooth, it was hard to see the detail of the individual print.