Print culture - SLOW Movement Lecture

Print Culture Lecture-SLOW

THIS LECTURE WAS PERFECT ON GIVING ME SOME BASICS AND GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF MY THEME!

"The Age of Print" according to Marshall McLuhan started in the 1450s.

There has been a return in the 21st Century to older methods of handmade (mechanical) production.

There is an appetite for it now. Perhaps due to that it is a very explicit retreat from the modern digital age and that it is not instant/immediate?

A rebellion has formed in various ways against capitalism and its quick profit=SLOW

Carl Honove wrote a book called 'In Praise of Slow' which kicked this movement off. This intended to change the logic of society focussing on quality rather than quantity.

Slow Food- Trying to increase shops and restaurants to buy things on small scale, knowing the person who has grown the produce. Also questioning whether it is better to wait longer for good food rather than speed! Looking at the foods sustainability, freshness and if it is environmentally friendly

Slow Fashion- Items are brought to market just for money and profit. Every clothes item is pretty much the same in all the different possible shops (copies). Therefore even though people think they can show their identity it is through a limited range of items. Is it better to by individually sourced items, encouraging independent producers to locally source fabric and not focus on making a profit but rather individuality and creativity?

Slow Design- To encourage not producing designs on output but how the practice relates to others (socio cultural/economic/political). To be progressive not nostalgic praising difference and not capitalism rather humanist. 

The Print Project are an example of this - reclaims old printing presses, re-putting them into use as a creative tool and sustainability (not just expansionism). Old fashioned print for example the letter press can test mediums against the digital aesthetic.

Does digital technology take away the aura created by handmade? There is an aura about handcrafted things (skill admired, eternal value, authenticity, magical, creative, human effort) Walter Benjamin summed up the aura being killed by digital through "shattering of tradition" in 1930s.

Digital age has made it possible for everyone to become an artist/designer of some form, to not think and appreciate this, is this elitism? An example of this is the online exhibition by Jodi in 2012 of Screen grabbed desktops or the Inside Out Project which is like a digital Banksey (people send in photos and they are projected on buildings).