Horace batchelor and FAB 208

Continuing with looking at low-fi printing of mid last century and making associations with other communication at the time I was drawn to Radio Luxembourg and the fading signal of 208 medium wave as a comparison of lost identities.

Posted here are some initial visuals exploring both spot colours and full colour on faded stock on the theme. This is leading to a more full research of the mid last century research and the considerations for 'critiquing retro'. Whilst this can be associated with 'revivalism' it is not my intention. I aim to reflect on the period and with the irony of digital as a production tool, explore the visual aesthetics produced by mechanical processes of the time - out of register spot colout/fullcolour process, coarse screen halftone etc - to create a series of studies that identify and define many of the visual elements that are now being lost within the perfection of digital processing.

These playing card sized images are some starting points for consideration whilst I am now building some posters on the theme.

Assemblage from a walk

A recent walk at Llantwitt Major in South Wales reminded me of the 'beach walk' assemblage of Peter Blake. So, on this short walk I collected various elements washed up on the shore to create an impromptu assemblage on the tarmac on the carpark, taking a photo' of it on my phone... hence the limited image quality. As with my collage the aim was one of balance and aesthetic juxtaposition. The addition of man-made objects gives some comparison of shape and form.

artists/period ephemera

Visiting the Rostra and Rooksmoor gallery in Bath today I was interested in the work of Aine Venables. Her work on show consisted of digital prints inspired by ephemera from the last century and digitally collaged. Some of the work appear as visual 'lists' - the milk labels - with a contextual visual imagery. Others utilise period visual icons in more aesthetic compositions.

The demise of the halftone screen?

Progress is slow! However, having considered the demise of the halftone screen in favour of the dither pattern digital print I now feel that I have some direction. It is of interest to me that the visual aesthetic I have been exploring with the juxtaposition of elements of aged ephemera in collages has something in common with the printing processes of the mid 20th century; some sense of lost  qualities of image influenced by paper, ink and processes.

I have become acutely aware that with the growing sophistication of digital processes that many of the ephemeral and 'period' qualities evident in print from the last century, particularly the late 40s, 50s and early 60s is now visually dead; partly due to the passage of time but importantly due to a rapidly developing ues of digital production. Consequently the visual components and qualities of that mid century printing now have a growing importance as a context for the development of print production and consumerism and a potential key to our understanding of a visual aesthetic.

My current investigation looks at the exaggeration of the elements of halftone colour. Inspired by the book mentioned in a previous post - 'Sayonara Home Run', I have begun to experiment with and process digitally, aspects of the previous mid century visual aesthetic to question the rapid decline of the use of the halftone process, readability and aesthetic appreciation. To begin this process I have returned to imagery collected to produce the 'Dick and Jane British Tour' from early in the Summer this year and a couple of results are posted here. To further this visual exploration I am now gathering wider ranging ephemera and imagery from the previous mid century to explore the process, the aesthetic and relationship to current trends. Many artists/illustrators are exploring the 'flat colour' retro approach which perhaps, has its influence from earlier in the last century. I feel that it is now worthwhile to explore in more depth the visual paradox of the halftone.

The images here when seen at full size (60cm x60cm) compare the 'lo-fi' coarse resolution halftone with modern digital products. Equally, there is a comment on the here and now in the narrative.

Touchonesque typographic collage

Following discussion about on-going work I have decided to continue with exploring a further range of collage styles and techniques prior to defining specific work for end of year assessment and shows. As part of some more recent practitioner research I have looked at the work of the Texas based collage artist Cecil Touchon. His work focusses on the use of typographic characters without image or any intended narrative.

In setting out to explore further approaches to collage and outcomes developed from this I intend to consider comparisons between work where there is clearly no narrative and visual outcomes are based on abstracts of juxtaposed objects and the resulting positive/negative space and balance/visual aesthetic created in this approach. Equally, I intend to investigate the inclusion of some percieved narrative linked to image and type based ephemera in the context of the collages I make ant the outcomes extracted from them.

Below are some recent typographic investigations. The rules: only to be constructed from a small set of flyers that were given to me.

More little round dots

In furthering my research into imagery developed from the nearly complete set of 'medical cards' I am now considering selected areas of original cards enlarged for print at approximately A2 size. Exploring the 'little round dots', screen angles and coloured backgrounds to suggest ageing newsprint, in order to retain the visual aesthetic of 'low fi' print influences from mid last century is a current focus. I see this as preparatory study for some sample screen prints and perhaps paintings to bring some comparative scale into my work.

I see this development as an opportunity to find methodologies with which to take my collages as a starting point and process further outcomes which retain not only the balance and juxtaposition of elements in the design but also the asssociation with a 'period' visual appearance.

The aim is to provide the low res, limited quality ink and registration appearance associated with the previously mentioned period.

Little coloured dots... medical cards

To explore the process of generating large scale images from 'bookish' sized collages, I have begun to experiment with breaking down images into oversized colour dot halftones to pursue some visual enquiry into the visual aesthetic suggested by the content of 'Sayonara, Home Run' referred to in the previous post. The imagery has been taken from my 'Medical Cards' series of playing card collages (which are nearing completion - only three cards needed to complete the full set) to consider visual effect. At present I have adopted standard screen angles and CMYK channels for print. As I define the imagery to use for these experiments I will consider variations to process colours as suggested by research into the print qualities of lo fi outcomes such as comics and cardboard printing from the mid 1900's. Experimenting with background colour print (base) is also proving to be important to generate the same visual qualities created by aged newsprint/low quality paper.