Lecture 6: Print culture 2

We live in the late age of print now where there has been a noticeable return to handmade and mechanical production. This may be because they are of high quality, but there are more reliable, quicker and easier methods that could be used; so why?

Slow movement

Carl Honoré (2004) believes that our obsession with speed means that we struggle to relax, enjoy the moment, get a decent night’s sleep, relationships suffer etc. So the discovery of the slow philosophy is based upon life being less about speed and more about the investment into a problem, so it can be solved.

The movement emphasises the fact that we need to clear space in our busy schedules for sleep, daydreaming and serendipity because being over worked and tired can have a negative impact on the quality of work that is actually produced.

Slow food movement

The monotony of fast food and the idea of converting back to ‘slow food’ which is locally sourced, small scale, home cooked and generally more environmentally conscious.

Fast fashion

The ‘unbeatable cheap top’ designed to be traded in large volumes as new styles come and go each season. Fast fashion is copied from high end labels and catwalks and exploits consumer demand for novelty. The economies of scale maximise profit and minimise costs and the ideology is that economic growth is the most important goal in the world.

Post-print culture

The infinite sharing of knowledge by going back to the traditional methods is important in making art with more worth. The aura was being trashed by technology, but the art work is made special again when it has an aura, so traditional methods are more admired because of this.


Artist examples relating to the lecture:

Mongrel – hack of the Tate’s website

This hack into the Tate’s website was a clever way to remove the aura of art in galleries portrays, by taking the art out of galleries and allowing us to access the artwork on laptops etc. 

Once it is out of its comfort zone, it can be manipulated and all of the images on the Tate website were replaced with horrible creatures in an attempt to fight back to the elitist structure and reveal the class basis. The Tate family made all of their wealth through sugar and slavery, so these fights back remind us that although these institutions are promoting beauty etc. the money has come from the suffering of others.

JR - Inside out project

The project is called INSIDE OUT and it is a global participatory art project with the potential to change the world. The project sets ups relational and collaborative projects all over the world, getting large amounts of people involved. 
This particular project took 300 faces and pasted them up onto the Ourcq's canal walls. The faces are all of people who have worked within the building at some point, visually telling the story of the evolution of Ourcq's canal and its face.