Space Between: Developing Digital Lithography

IMPACT 8: Borders and Crossings International Printmaking Conference

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Dundee

28 August 2013 - 1 September 2013

For the IMPACT 8 International Printmaking Conference in Dundee, the exhibition Space Between: Developing Digital Lithography was an opportunity for me to present a series of prints showing research that I have been doing on the development of digital tusche wash - research that has been ongoing since about 2008.

The idea that lithography can be digitised evolved initially, from research completed for a paper for the Tamarind Institute in 1996: Developing Customised Wash Palettes and Brush Tools. Subsequent participation in two international portfolio projects during 2008, both of which encouraged exploration of the interface between analogue and digital printmaking - became the impetus for further research and experimentation.

Previously, for the IMPACT 7 International Printmaking Conference at Monash University in Melbourne 2011,  it was possible to demonstrate how tusche wash can be digitally engineered using software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter 12 and to then show how this can be applied on screen in a relatively authentic and lithographic manner, drawing using a graphics tablet.

Since Melbourne there has been opportunity to develop this process of digitising tusche further and to explore how lithographic prints can be made using both a combination of digital and conventional techniques as well as producing work that is conceived in wholly digital terms.

The work for this exhibition (see above) thus comprised of a range of images that trace the development of this research – from relatively early prints (2008) that used basic cut-and-paste technology, to more sophisticated use of digital tusche wash drawn using a pressure sensitive graphics tablet, outputted on to textured film, exposed to plate and printed in the conventional lithographic manner.