"The Printed and Digital Page: Reassessing Form, Content and Methodologies" will focus on printed and digital pages as both subjects and objects of research, ranging from magazines, newspapers, periodicals, books, zines and photo books to websites, databases and content management systems. Such artefacts raise methodological questions around the use of their content, as well as their design, production, materiality and consumption, in design historical doctoral research. This TECHNE supported PhD training day will consist of discussions on the challenges of working with printed and digital pages with PhD students and academics in design history and related areas in humanities, art and design. The event will attend to issues such: as the design, production and consumption of pages, including their imagery, typography, materiality and readerships; and how they can be both the medium, and result, of practice-based research. Looking at these objects 'close-up' will offer students the opportunity to discuss strategies for researching the printed page as both object and subject.

ELIGIBILITY
The day is aimed at doctoral students focused on, or interested in, design history and practice and whose research involves close study of the form and content of print and digital publications from the 18th century to digital equivalents in the 21st century. The day is open to students who are TECHNE studentship holders as well as PhD students more generally at TECHNE's partner universities (Royal Holloway, University of London; Kingston University; Royal College of Art; University of the Arts London; University of Brighton; University of Roehampton; University of Surrey).


APPLICATION PROCESS
Please send the following information to: Cat Rossi (c.rossi@kingston.ac.uk) and Vanessa Van den Berghe (k1436023@kingston.ac.uk) by 5pm on 11th March 2018:

- Name
- Affiliation
- Title of PhD research
- Short abstract of your research (max. 150 words)

Organisers: Vanessa Van den Berghe, Lucia Savi, Catherine Sidwell, and Dr Sarah Teasley, Dr Annebella Pollen, Professor Jeremy Aynsley, Dr Catharine Rossi.

The event is funded by the TECHNE Doctoral Training Partnership and organised by Kingston University, London, the Royal College of Art and the University of Brighton.

The Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art (SITSA) is an intensive two-week workshop for Ph.D. candidates in art history with diverse backgrounds and research interests; it is designed for emerging scholars and museum professionals who believe that their thinking will benefit from more experience with object-based and art-technical investigations. Participants will engage with conservators, conservation scientists, curators, art historians, artists, and other makers in the interdisciplinary, collaborative environment of the Harvard Art Museums and the neighboring Department of History of Art and Architecture and other academic and cultural venues in the Greater Boston area. Under the direction of Francesca Bewer, research curator for conservation and technical studies programs at the Harvard Art Museums, SITSA will unite expert faculty to engage a cohort of 15 students in close looking, art making, and the scientific investigation of objects from the museums’ collections.

SITSA aims to introduce participants to the interdisciplinary approach that is core to the technical study of art and to build relationships that increase collaboration, enrich research, and enhance scholarship across the field of art history. It is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which in part allows the museums to provide each participant with housing and a stipend of $1,400 to help cover roundtrip travel costs, food, and incidental expenses for the duration of the program.

2018 Course Topic: Replication -------------------------

The 2018 institute will be dedicated to the theme of replication, both as an artistic process and as an art-technical research methodology. How do we gain a more nuanced understanding of the possible range of relationships between different iterations of an object? How can hands-on experimentation with artists’ materials and techniques, as well as reverse engineering of an artwork, open up new avenues of inquiry? These are among the questions to be explored during this summer’s workshop.

Whether using matrices such as molds and photographic negatives or working free-hand, artists and craftspeople past and present create copies or multiples of their work, produce artworks that are themselves multiples, and incorporate reproduction(s) into original works. Artists have also traditionally honed their skills through copying others’ works and artistic practices. In some traditions, copying is seen as an act of devotion. In other instances, replication has been adopted for greater dissemination or to serve remunerative ends. Archaeologists and art conservators attempt to replicate objects that they study to better understand artists’ working processes, the evolution of technologies, and how particular works were made and change over time. Increasingly, such hands-on methodology is being explored by art historians as well. Through the theme of replication, SITSA will consider authenticity, originality, reproducibility, multiples, copies, and other related topics.

Guided by experts, participants will explore the tools used routinely in conservation to gather evidence of manufacture, alteration, and restoration, and will carry out in-depth examination and documentation of select objects from the museums’ collections. Bronze casting, printmaking, and analog photographic printing are among the hands-on processes that will be attempted, in combination with close looking at works and conversations with artists. Students will engage in peer-to-peer teaching, discuss technical art history writing, and help formulate questions throughout the workshop. Together, the cohort will reflect on how the methodologies investigated during the workshop might inform participants’ scholarly interests.

Jonathan Ashworth returns to londonprintstudio to teach this beautiful and intricate skill. Just two hundred years ago Thomas Bewick was knocking out some of the most sublime wood engravings the world has seen. He set a standard in relief engraving and in the short while since many others have been inspired by the direct and demanding process to produce more work in this fashion, the best of which is as powerful as any other artistic medium despite their titchy size!

During this two day workshop the work of many different artists who have worked using the techniques of wood engraving will be presented, in order that each student can find an affinity with a particular maker and an inspiration for their work during the workshop and beyond. We will immerse ourselves in mark making, lose ourselves in the detail of these miniature world. The use of different wood engraving tools will be explained and demystified as will that of sharpening, transferring the image to the printing block and the subtleties of printing.

There are 8 spaces available on our Introduction to Wood Engraving Course, which are booked on a first-come first-served basis. If you have any queries or would like to book a place on this course please contact the studio on 020 8969 3247 or by email – courses@londonprintstudio.org.uk.

Alternatively you can also book our courses online by clicking on your preferred dates on the calendar below.

You will be taken to our secure payment gateway.

Price: £182.00 (£146.00 concessions) Including basic materials.

*Concessions are available to the following: Studio Members, unemployed, under 25′s, full time students, graduates of less than 2 years, senior citizens and disabled people. (proof of concession is required)

"Conservation Enclosures"
Dates: 3/17/2018 - 3/18/2018

Protective enclosures can serve as an extension of the books you create, enhance their presentation, and provide an additional surface where one can customize the box to reflect the contents. In this class you will learn to make the same archival-grade enclosures used by the Library of Congress. You will also learn alternatives to the clamshell box, a case wrapper and a self-closing wrapper. Discussion will center on conservation principles and the importance of archives. For the book artist, librarian and collector. No experience required.

For this class, most materials are included, but please bring the following with you to each class. Tools marked with a star (*) are available for purchase at the time your class starts and tools marked with (+) are in our communal shop.

Materials:

Cutting tool such as Olfa snap blades (strongly preferred)
Bone Folder*
Microspatula*
1″ glue brush*
Self Healing Mat (no smaller that 12 in)+
a metal ruler+
small scissors+
9 in plastic or metal triangle
pencil and eraser

Also have these types of books to build enclosures for:

A soft cover book (paperback) – max ¾” thick and size 5″ x 8″
A small book – can be soft or hardcover – max 1’thick and size 4” x 7”
A hard cover book for the phase box, minimum of 1″ thick. W and H should not be larger than 8.5″ x 11″

Tuition: $325 members / $350 non-members

-------------------------------

"Tunnel Books"
Dates: 4/21/2018 - 4/22/2018

A tunnel book is a wonderful structure that allows the viewer to look within and discover a hidden world, which evolves in accumulated layers. Originally derived from a “peep” show, it still feels that we are allowed to gaze within a personal space. The class will begin with a short history and then make a model to understand how the structure moves and is constructed. Each participant will then create their own unique tunnel book.

Maria G. Pisano is a book artist, curator and educator. Her oeuvre, encompassing prints, works on paper and artists’ books, are published under the Memory Press imprint. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, in museums and galleries. Her book Hècatombe 9-11 and the three accompanying prints from the deluxe edition – Night Before the Day, Skeletal Remains and Waiting Urns, have been selected by The National September 11 Memorial Museum. In April 2016 she delivered the illustrated lecture Hidden Voice of Making Books at the Library of Congress, and in 2018 she is delivering a lecture at the College Book Arts Association Conference.

Tuition: $325 members / $350 non-members.

"Introduction to Japanese Bookbinding" Bexx Caswell-Olson

Using historical models as our guide, participants will create a stab-sewn softcover binding in the Japanese tradition. Variations on the stab binding structure, the binding of single sheets, and the selection of tools and materials will also be discussed. Bexx Caswell-Olson is the Special Collections Conservator for the Michigan State University Libraries. She holds a Certificate in Bookbinding from the North Bennet Street School and a Master’s of Library Science from Simmons College. She currently serves as President of the Guild of Book Workers, a national organization dedicated “to all the book arts”.

"Inlay and Onlay" Jesse Hunt

In this workshop participants will create small plaquettes demonstrating basic techniques for the inlay and onlay of leather in decorative binding. Materials will be provided but students are encouraged to bring their own tool kits. Jesse Hunt learned bookbinding and conservation from Richard Baker in St.Louis, Missouri and has spent the last five years working for Bridwell Library on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas.

"An Introduction to Wire Edge Binding" Daniel E. Kelm

Wire edge binding utilizes a thin metal rod along the binding edge of each page. The metal wire is exposed at regular intervals creating knotting stations where thread attaches one page to the next. The result is a binding that opens exceptionally well, and gives you the option of producing unusual shapes. During this introduction you will produce both a simplified codex and accordion model.

"Tunnel Books" Maria G. Pisano

A tunnel book is a wonderful structure that allows the viewer to look within and discover a hidden world evolving in accumulated layers via the optical illusion of perspective. Traditionally a tunnel book is accompanied by supporting concertinas sides, which make the work collapsible, portable and easily viewable. The book becomes an extension of the reader, who’s able to hold it at eye level and marvel at the show.

"A Curator’s Choice of Bookbindings from Six Centuries" Eric White

Bridwell Library’s former Curator of Special Collections will introduce a selection of outstanding bookbindings as evidence of binding history, the book trade, and book ownership since the fifteenth century. Eric Marshall White, PhD, was Curator of Special Collections at Bridwell Library from 1997 to 2015. Currently Curator of Rare Books at Princeton University Library, he specializes in fifteenth-century printed books.

“Hot Stamping Foils for Modern Book Decoration” Priscilla Spitler, Winner of the 7th Helen Warren DeGolyer Award for American Bookbinding

Since the 1990s, Priscilla Spitler has experimented with colored heat-transfer foils, normally used to stamp titles on books, for creative surface design on her leather bindings. A variety of applications for cut and reverse foil stamping technique will be presented in this lecture, including set-ups on a stamping machine for durable flat foil adhesion, which offers a modern alternative to traditional bookbinding design.

***Workshop presenters will provide tools and materials. However, participants are encouraged to bring their own basic tools such as bonefolders, scissors, awls, etc.

Using collagraph plates in the service of creating an artist's book. Collagraph plates are affordable and easy plates to make in order to create content for an artist book. Participants will design and prepare a variety of plates to begin to learn the many possibilities inherent in collagraphs. Incorporate materials to create tonalities and textures, use cutting tools for lines and shapes - integrating all in the service of making a plate(s) that will be used for making prints. A good reason for choosing this medium is the versatility of the plates, which can be printed both intaglio and relief simultaneously – additionally we will explore the use of inks, brayers, colors, papers, etc. and the many variations of prints one plate can yield. The class will cover the history and background of collagraphs with examples of prints and artists' books where collagraph plates were used to create the works. After working many years with etchings and the many chemicals associated with printmaking, I found that collagraphs gave me the desired richness I was looking for in a print, and the ability to continue my work in a safe, non-toxic environment.

Instructor Bio: Maria G. Pisano is a book artist, curator and educator. Her oeuvre, encompassing prints, works on paper and artists' books, are published under the Memory Press imprint. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, in museums and galleries. Ms. Pisano, an adjunct professor, teaches papermaking, printing, book arts and conservation. Additionally, she continuously gives workshops nationally and internationally, such as The Center for Book Arts in New York, Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, OH, Professione Libro in Italy, at Bridwell Library, TX in 2018, other libraries and at her studio.

This half-day workshop will reflect on the multiple ways in which animal skin and the by-products of the evacuation of humoreal excreta (hair, fur, feathers) were conceptualised and used between 1450 and 1700. Combining different historiographical approaches and sources (textual, material, and visual), the workshop aims to open the field up to a wider audience, strengthen the need to consider animals compared to similar work on human skin and hair, and facilitate an interdisciplinary conversation, from natural history to material culture, on animal skin in a globalised world.

Confirmed speakers are Stefan Hanß (Cambridge) on feather-work, Patricia Lurati (Zürich) on fur in Renaissance art, and Thomas Rusbridge (Birmingham) on shagreen. We welcome proposals that complement these topics, in particular those that address shells, scales, and animal skin, hair, and fur in natural history texts, but we will consider papers that fall outside of these areas. Presentations will be followed by ample time for discussion and reflection, and so we are happy for works in progress.

Proposals (up to 250 words) for 20-minute papers should be sent to Kathleen Walker-Meikle at renaissanceskin@kcl.ac.uk by 15 March 2018. We may be able to provide speakers with reasonable accommodation and travel costs. Please indicate when you apply if you will require reimbursements of expenses.

The workshop is organised as part of the Renaissance Skin project.

The Bibliothèque Kandinsky’s Summer University is a Musée National d’Art Moderne/Centre Pompidou research program installed on the very premises of the museum. It focuses on modern and contemporary art primary sources: archives, documentary materials (both written and visual), interviews, records, as well as new forms of artistic appropriation and documentary production. Interdisciplinary in format, the Summer University brings together young researchers: historians, art historians, anthropologists, sociologists, artists, critics and curators who share a collective reflection with art professionals and various scholars around primary source materials. It will be held in one of the museum rooms, around a conference table, used at the same time as a workspace and an exhibition device for the display of documents. Facsimiles, reproductions, and archival material will be unfolded in the space during the working sessions. Several writing workshops will rhythm the program, as well as visits to various documentary collections. Editorial work is at the heart of the Summer University: a new issue of the “Journal de l’Université d’été de la Bibliothèque Kandinsky”—conceived both as a critical anthology based on the debates during the sessions and as an experimental production—will be released at the end of the session.

For its fifth session, Bibliothèque Kandinsky’s Summer University will address the plural phenomenon of publishing in the art field in all its diversity. It will seek to capture the various networks, exchanges, contexts, and the multiple geographies that inform the creative decisions at stake in this variegated production. It will also echo the recent reflections on the status and evolution of the artists’ book caught between the imperatives of digital turn and alternative editorial strategies, and discuss the contours of an extremely versatile genre. Indeed, artists’ publications resist any restrictive classification, as one can’t help but notice, amongst their specificities, the formal singularities and unremitting ingeniousness of their varied production methods.

Flexible in nature, artists’ publications and editions will be confronted to different approaches: history of the book, media studies, visual communication theories, graphic design… Rather than fixing a dynamic field, these disciplines have opened up new fields of investigation, dealing with production methods and exhibition strategies, amongst other examples. The communication proposals will have to address the very multiplicity of formats, techniques and mediums that are essential to the art of publishing: artists’ books and periodicals, fanzines, underground production, multiples, photobooks, architecture books, catalogues conceived by curators, ephemera and hybrid editorial practices, digital experiments, e-books by artists, DIY and self-publishing. Cases studies are expected on historical productions, producers and/or institutions, while alternative propositions are welcomed, dealing with the positions artists can take—notably as publishers—, their editorial practices, as well as the complex status of printed matter in art, in relation to the different artistic and technical cultures which are negotiated on the very body of the book.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

The Bibliothèque Kandinsky’s Summer University is aimed at young fellows (PhD candidates, PhDs, PostDocs): historians, art historians, anthropologists, sociologists, curators, librarians, graphic designers and artists at large.

Application file:
– written proposal (4,500 characters/700 words) either in English or in French, in PDF format.
– CV which should clearly assess the candidate’s language proficiency. In order to apply is important to have a good command in both English and French.

Candidates are expected to bring along a selection of sources used in their research.

The proposal dossier will be sent to: bibliotheque.kandinsky@centrepompidou.fr

SGC International is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of printmaking. Our mission is to provide opportunities for artists engaged in the field of printmaking, papermaking, and book arts and to stimulate appreciation for these art forms through conferences, exhibitions, and education.

Since 1973, SGC International has organized conferences around the country that provide a platform for artists to exchange ideas and information, to educate and inspire, and to cultivate new collaborations and friendships. SGC International has over 2,500 members from around the globe and our annual conference brings together 1200-1900 artists.

SGCI 2018: Las Vegas, Nevada
Altered Landscapes
Meadows appeared in the desert through spring-fed grasses, providing Las Vegas its name in 1821. The city glitters like an oasis, casting a barrage of light in the shadows of the Spring Mountains. But like a mirage, the promises of Las Vegas can be fickle.


The city’s landscape has shifted from canyon petroglyphs to the Old Spanish Trail to a home for hydroelectric workers eager to lose themselves in the pleasures of an illicit speakeasy or underground casino while building the Hoover Dam. Las Vegas is known for its glitz and glamorous facades, yet the underpinnings of the city rest on rusted bones in the middle of the desert. Printmaking can be viewed in a similar light - the intimate result of labor and process; malleable visual expression that can both mimic and innovate.

SGCI 2018 Altered Landscapes will bring printmakers together to explore the tension between reality & representation; alteration & reincarnation; ventures & adventures; construction & decay. Altered Landscapes will capture the spirit of Las Vegas’s perpetual reinvention and the fallacy of its promises. Through dialogue and demonstrations, Altered Landscapes will explore transformations in artist attitudes towards the natural environment, and printmaking’s evolving roles in creative and social practice.

Following last year's resounding success, the Arezzo Study Center Art in Tuscany Residence and the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze are proud to announce the second annual summer course on printmaking and print collecting in Italy. Internationally renowned specialists will guide you through the world of Renaissance and Baroque prints and drawings preserved in the most important collections in Florence, Rome, Arezzo and Venice. Among them Cristina Acidini, President of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze (formerly Soprintendente of the Polo Museale Fiorentino), specialist in the works of Michelangelo and the Zuccari; Lisa Pon (Raphael, Dürer and Marcantonio Raimondi); Carlo Sisi (Conservatr at the Fondazione Museo Casa Bruschi, Arezzi); Gert Jan van der Sman, distinguished expert in Venetian prints of the 15th and 16th centuries (Print and Printmaking in Venice); Giorgio Marini (Curator at the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe delle Gallerie degli Uffizi and member of the editorial board of Print Quarterly); Rick Scorza, Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze (formerly Warburg Institute and Morgan Library & Museum), outstanding expert on Vincenzo Borghini and Giorgio Vasari; and the director of the Summer Course Program Alessandra Baroni Vannucci, specialist in the works of Stradanus and the print culture of the Medici.

For more info (program/teachers and grants) see: www.arezzosummercourse.org or send an email to: summercourse.arezzo@gmail.com
Application deadline for grants: February 10, 2018
Application deadline: March 30, 2018