One of my pet peeves on this campus is the poor-functioning printers on a regular basis. For some reason, they always seem to be broken or inundated with paper. I am hoping that the print workshop will provide me with an understanding and appreciation for laser printing, even if it does not function spot-on each time. At least we don’t have to hand set all of our papers…
Last year, I had the pleasure of working with Professor Rippeon in a print-making seminar for my poetry writing workshop. For the featured poets coming to campus, we produced prints of their poems to be distributed at the readings. I still have my prints hanging in my dorm room! Professor Rippeon stressed during the process that print-making is truly the combination of art and literature; the act of “performing” literature by aptly selecting colors and forms that mirror the content of the poem. Moreover, we took into consideration some of the poet’s preferences. I LOVED this workshop; it is still one of my most memorable experiences in the literature classes I have taken because it was the first time I was exposed to the unification of art form and literary production.
One thing I remember from my work print-making is that it can difficult to maneuver the paper in the press. As shown in the video clips in the preparatory email, the print-maker must hold down the piece of paper while cranking at the same time. This can be trickier than it looks…
I’m very glad to see that someone else on campus is frustrated by the printers! Even if you’re lucky enough to have the thing work, it’s still probably in a locked room! Anyways, that’s enough about my printer woes. I found your comment about taking printers for granted (even though they can be annoying) very interesting. I touched upon laser printers a bit in my own post, but thought I would expand upon it here. When we started making prints and typesetting, we were able to mass produce literature and various communications. This obviously groundbreaking step was inhibited by the time required for typesetting and printing. It is interesting that inventors target many inventions to situations like printing, where an already useful process can be exploited to become even more useful! I think we see this a bit with 3D printing as well. In science, for example, it is useful to look at 3D models of DNA and proteins, but it can be time-consuming to create these models. However, with a 3D printer, the process is expedited. The increase in the ease with which these things can be created therefore significantly increases the availability of such models to the general public. Obviously, there are aesthetic considerations to be made when contrasting a printing press like what we used today and laser printer, but from a purely industrial standpoint inventors like printers are very useful.