An examination of the physical and temporal parameters of post-physical printmaking practice: exploring new modes of collaboration, distribution and consumption resulting from digital processes and networked participation.

Thompson, Paul

Abstract

This research was initiated by questions raised from the researchers professional activities in fine art printmaking and examines, through contextualised artistic practice and critical enquiry, redefinitions in the physical and temporal parameters of digitally mediated fine art printmaking caused by developments in digital media; specifically the impact of digital culture, Web2.0, social networking, augmented and virtual reality. Grounded on critical contextual review the research explores, through contextualised research probes, the notion of post-physical practice and the impact of new modes of collaboration, distribution and consumption on contemporary printmaking. It includes the findings of an international, digitally mediated, participatory and collaborative exchange survey of contemporary digital print, developed through direct enquiry using social media as a research tool. Philosophical questions about the impact of eculture, post-physical working and new modes of print-based artistic practice were examined, as well as the indexicality of the print itself in augmented and virtual contexts. The research employs dynamic triangulation between critical contextual review and direct qualitative and practice-based research; to develop a taxonomy framing the contextual precedents of digital printmaking, pinpointing key markers of transition between traditional and new printmaking. It uses post-studio methods and explores the conception, production, editioning, collection and ownership of print in an increasingly networked digital age, providing proof of concept and exploring virtual immersive surfaces in printmaking. These lead to the development of new models for a second generation of printmaking practice or Printmaking2.0 expressly founded in post-physical practice in a poststudio context and embracing the lingua franca of contemporary digital practice in the production of born digital virtually imprinted forms. In both, the technical practice of post-physical printmaking and the significant artistic implications resulting from the cultural shifts following digital participation and post-physical embodiment.

Citation

THOMPSON, P. 2014. An examination of the physical and temporal parameters of post-physical printmaking practice: exploring new modes of collaboration, distribution and consumption resulting from digital processes and networked participation. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 22, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 22, 2014
• Keywords: Digital; Printmaking; Printmaking20; Art; Post physical; Augmented; Virtual; Reality; Social; Networks
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/999