Sound Reactions to Berlin

Over the summer I had the amazing opportunity to go to Berlin, Germany for 6 weeks for a faculty lead study abroad program! There I worked with Dr. Kristopher Holland with a group of 10 other artist’s and thinkers. Dr. Holland has been a mentor for me for the last couple of years pushing me towards art as inquiry over expression. We spent the months before we left reading Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation and Jean Luc Nancy’s The Sense of the World as starting points to change our way perceiving this new space, Berlin. The goal of the trip was to make a cohesive project using the readings (both fantastic reads,by the way, worth all the agonizing pain of self doubt and nihilism that comes with each sentence) to a site specific theory of perception and the reality of being in Berlin. I, even though liking both of the texts, decided to not solely base my artistic research only on these two texts, on a couple of others. Here’s the list

Noise Matters: Towards an Ontology of Noise by Greg Hainge
Listening by Jean Luc Nancy
Silence by John Cage
Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art by Salome Voegelin

These books have helped me work on a new working (in progress) theory of noise, art, technology and ontology. Ultimately I plan on writing an essay of this theory after graduation. For now I will continue on the visual research of this theory to better understand what I am trying to say, how it relates to art practices, and theory studies in general.

So what did I make in germany? Not as much as I would have liked, but resources for a printmaker were slim to none. I practiced my drawing skills daily, wrote and read a lot. The last 4 weeks there we spent the days in the studio working. Simply put I made a table. I don’t wish to go into huge amounts of the table due to its failures during the show. However I will touch on what I did learn from the process of making the table, specifically the image. First here is the table.

Screenprint on Countertop, 4 Ikea legs

Screenprint on Countertop, 4 Ikea legs

In use at the show.

The goal of the table was to make the viewer take a beer, drink said beer, then use the empty bottle in interaction with the table and interpret the image as a graphic notation of a musical score. The original image was a found, noisey pattern inside a old brick in Berlin. I also found these great small little music boxes where they had blank strips where one could punch out the score and then it would play it. I bought 3 of them to process my image. This was my result.

So how did I use the music boxes in this process? I took the image and made a bitmap with the frequency of 5 producing large round dots that abstracted the image but as you got further way it produced the image more clearly. Like most bitmaps. Then took 3 strips, one for each box, and punched out the bitmap over 10 inches, producing a score completely out of the image. here’s what it sounds like.

This is where I think the real important work that I did over there happened. I have plans with another artist, Jeanette Nuxoll, to make a large scale one back in Cincinnati, hopefully to maybe produce moving images and sound!

Overall my experience in Berlin was unforgettable. The city, the people and the art were all fantastic and beautiful. I hope that it isn’t my only time to visit such a great city.

_AK_

Tests for the First Semester

This semester I plan on taking ideas of from my experience in Germany, using sound as a material for image, into my prints. I want to get out of the singular image along with the limited size I have been working under the last couple of years. Hopefully this will make me push my print media to be more immersive to connect it the sound work I’m working on.

I’ll be activately updating these tests on Instagram so follow me on there if you are interested!

Here’s a couple from the first couple of weeks.

https://instagram.com/p/7b8rVzERuU/?taken-by=andyknolle

Sadly this test (Above) failed to produce any visible effects from the vibrations, I’ve continued to test a couple of methods but again nothing prevailed. With some time away I think I came up with a solution! Next week I should have some more results!

https://instagram.com/p/7ttzjwERi7/?taken-by=andyknolle

If you were with me in the spring, you might now that I have interest in screen printing on intaglio plates. (Sugar-lift demo) Unfortunately the sugar lift didn’t work out to the degree of detail I desired. I started using other processes this semester with great results. Here’s (above) one with a thinned down asphaltum pulled through the screen. Made such a clean etch. I’m planning to do another this week!

Lastly, I’m trying to go big this semester. Mostly using screen printing and multiples. Here’s a small sneak peak to a print I’m working on now, only part 1 out of 6.

https://instagram.com/p/74TQV4ERqL/?taken-by=andyknolle

_AK_

HOW-TO Screen Print a Sugar Lift!

As I progress in printmaking, I’m trying to integrate all the processes into a singular image. Certain processes allow for different effects within the pictorial plane. I’ve been wanting to play with embossing of image that does not correspond exactly to my inked image, basically an invisible image that the viewer will have to discover themselves. I’m beginning this process with learning how to do a sugar lift using screen printing.

What is a sugar lift? It is an intaglio process that normally achieves a very paintery aesthetic. But basically it is a solution that is combination of ink, soap, sugar (who would’ve thunk) and, in my case, gum arabic. Once you put the solution on the plate, let it dry, then cover it with asphaltum, you put the plate in a hot water bath and the heat will activate the sugar, expanding it and then lifting off the asphaltum ground on the plate. Exposing the plate to be aquatinted then etched!

Here is a recipe close to the one I used for this process.

I’m still new in this process but I’m excited to see all of its possibilities. I would love to hear from any one that has done this, especially with silk screens for any advice or pointers!

Enjoy the how-to Screen Print a Sugar Lift!

_AK_

These are the supplies you’ll need. ~a screen with an exposed image ~a tray ~an intaglio plate (copper or zinc) ~assorted brushes ~a sugar lift solution* ~asphaltum** *sugar lift solution: this is an experimental process and there is no real way to do this. My professor and I made this solution through trial and error. It contains India Ink, Corn Syrup, Gum Arabic, Water and Soap. ** Not pictured

First step is like any intaglio print, you have to wash your plate. Your plate has oils naturally on it as a protection, so we have to wash it.

Proof of oil on the plate

Take Comet cleaner to the plate with a wet rag and wipe it until the water runs smoothly off the plate

Like this!

Let the plate air dry.

Once dry its time to print on the plate! Set up your pre-exposed screen like any other screen print.

Line up the image with the plate. Then place the ink in a pulling position, above the image. We do not need to flood the image with the sugar lift solution. once the ink is place down, do one, only one, pull. The slightest amount of the sugar lift solution will pull up the ground off the plate later on!

Let the solution dry till you find it has a nice harden outside. Should be able to feel the solution after wards. Shouldn’t take more than a half hour. DO NOT HEAT TO DRY

Now time to coat the plate with asphaltum. Make sure your asphaltum is a nice thin, even coat.

Should look similar to this when done.

Let this dry, again DO NOT HEAT to dry. This may take a while, but a fan will quicken the process.

When the asphaltum is dry, its time for the magic to happen.

Place the tray in a sink that can produce hot water. KEY word is HOT. The hotter the better. You can heat the water yourself if you do not have access to a sink that produces the desired temp.

Let the water fill the tray, place the plate in the water and soak it till the water becomes room temperature.

Once the water is room temperature, take a brush and start to brush off any asphaltum that has not lifted already. Be careful and clean your brush as you go along, excessive asphaltum can cause smudging on the plate, which will etch.

Once you are happy with the image pull it out of the water and let it air dry again.

And Whabam you just put an bit-mapped image on an intaglio plate in matter of 2 hours! trust me it would take much longer to do by hand!

Look how clean those lines are!

Its ready to etch! You can now do any additional scratching or processes on the plate like normal. I suggest putting down an aquatint, especially if your image is like mine and has a lot of open plate!

Technique: Research

I am supposed to make a separate post containing my “non-technical” process, in other words my research. I find this prompt to a be a bit baffling due to my definition of technique/ technical/ technology. Research, reading, watching, pretty much anything is a technique, besides breathing… maybe, thus making the process technical. End rant.

For this post I would just like to share what I’ve been reading to further my investigation of technology, technique, and experimentation causing humans to be identified as tool- makers rather than of tool- users.

Philosophy:

Jacques Ellul: The Technological Society: 1964

Martin Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology: 1977

Lewis Mumford: Technics and Society: 1934: The Myth of The Machine; Volume I: Technics and Human Development: 1967

Jean Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulations: 1981

Art Theory:

John Cage: Silence: Lectures and Writings: 1939

Caroline A. Jones: Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology and Contemporary Art: 2006

Ron Burnett: How Images Think: 2004

Salome Voegelin: Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art: 2010

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to contact me. I would love to discuss any of the readings or new readings. I am currently looking for more material on: Digital (device) Technology, Experimentation, Curiosity, Sound Art, and Glitch.

_AK_

Technique: Experiments

Currently I view much of my work as visual/ auditory experiments. My technical processes aren’t very technical, more like a crazy science lab experiment then filtered in post production. This experimental process is informed by my research into human “technique” and our relationship to technology. I am interested loosing control of my influence in my process to technology, therefore my technical processes is riddled with experiments and chance techniques.

My printing experiments lately have been all about transferring mediums and the glitches that happen in between the jumps. I have been playing around with scanning videos, projections, exposing projections, sonic-fication of images. I create my images by starting with an analogue medium such as photo, drawing, captured video and VHS tapes, then editing, distorting, destroying and rebuilding them digitally. Finally to further the investigation of glitch, I return them back into an analogue mediums with, mainly, screen printing and lithography. This distorting, destroying and rebuilding gives lots of control of the image to technology  that I am using to process the data. I view this as a similar relationship as a producer has with an musician, as well as the process I have with my sound art/ studies.

My auditory process is much like my image process, I like when the two to interacte with/ reflect each other as much as possible. There is this connection between sound and image that I am interested in, and I am working to figure out how to experiment with this connection more. As I am not a musician of the classical definition I mostly work with interactive atonal ambient compositions. I collect sounds as I go through my day to day interactions leaving me with a library of sounds to work with. These sounds range from noises from printmaking processes, machinery, loops of natural technological noise, drones, and ambient musical compositions. I take these and then begin to construct my composition. My largest tool to this process is the program MAX/MSP. This program allows you to create synthetic patches, like most old analogue synths, but allow for interactive components to be added, such as frequency response, midi controls and other sensors to input data into the patch. This interactive aspect of Max/Msp is essential to my practice, making my sound art more of a post-studio piece rather than a fixed media. As I continue making these interactive ambient compositions, I am starting to experiment with more fixed media sound art as well. I’m doing this with more studies into noise poetry in hopes of making some more contemporary compositions of the old futurism practice.

Besides the screen printing and lithography, I am also working within etching. I have been using etchings to explore more narrative illustrative work of our frustrations with technology and the anxieties of using it “wrong”. This is a newer unexplored medium for me, so I’m having a lot of interesting results playing with etching times, just to begin. Etching times, to me, is the same as a computer processing information, and over working a computer is one, highly uncontrollable way, to produce a glitch, or an alternate outcome. So my etching times on my Zinc plates have been in the 9+ hour range, wielding some crazy, gritty results.

With such experimental processes I am always switching up how I do things; my order, my mediums, my subjects, and the amount of control I have with each piece. As a undergrad, I feel like this is my time to experiment and really figure out what does what and why. This is not only part of my artistic process, but how I process life and all other information all well.

_AK_