Paper Models: investigating laser-cutting technology to develop new artists' books and paper-based creative practice for arts, crafts and design

This pilot project will allow artists to develop the longer-term potential of laser cutting as part of their armoury. Artists often adapt industrial and digital technologies to work with creatively, as evidenced by the use of digital printing, to create artists' books and prints. This project would create new methodologies for artists' creative production methods.

As the technology becomes more affordable, laser cutters are a regular feature within secondary, further and higher education. This project aims explore the potential of the laser cutter as a tool for artists working with the book form and paper-based work, and see how it can replace the need for labour intensive manipulation of paper and card by hand. The project also aims to change attitudes to creative making and increase awareness of the advantage of new technologies for artists/craftspeople.

Manipulating paper on a laser cutter is being explored within industry, but what remains relatively unexplored is the possibility of using the laser cutter as a creative production tool for artists and craftspeople. One aspect that is unappealing to many artists is that the normal carbon dioxide laser cutter will burn and scorch the edges of the paper. With an investigation into which papers cut with the least amount of burning and by utilising nitrogen instead of oxygen as the cutting catalyst, this should reduce any scorching to an absolute minimum.

The PI researches and assists artists and designers with laser cutting and feels that the potential of these machines is under-explored. As part of this bid the PI would be developing his own practice as a book artist with the use of the laser cutting process. This involves exploring the possibilities of using the laser cutters in conjunction with digital printing to produce accurate cuts and folds within the book, in relation to the printed imagery. The results of this would be used as one of the three in-depth case studies in the final outcomes.

The PI will also work with two other book artists who have yet to engage with laser cutters as a creative production tool. The possibility of using the laser as a tool for cutting, scoring, perforating and engraving paper is as yet underutilised by book and paper artists. Many artists use hand cutting and scoring in their work unaware that laser cutters can assist in many of the more mundane aspects of producing editions or unique works. The laser cutter need not replace the handcrafted element rather run alongside it. This would allow the artist to produce larger editions more effectively and allow the work to be distributed to a wider audience.

The artists will be invited to be a case study resident at the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR), University of the West of England, and work intensively over a four day period, producing new work that explores the use of the laser cutters. The new work produced on residency will be exhibited at four venues in the UK and Denmark over 2010 - 2011.

To present this applied research within an academic context, the findings of the project will also be published online to allow for greater dissemination and to provoke further discussion and development of the laser cutter as a creative production tool. Collectively the case studies will be written up and submitted for publication as an article in 'The Bonefolder', 'The Journal of Artists' Books' and 'AfterImage'. Free cutting guides, aimed at artists, designers, craftspeople and those in education, will be available as PDFs on the CFPR book arts website. A critical essay on the project's outcomes will also be available on the book arts website as a PDF.

A one-day symposium for twenty-five delegates will present the project, demonstrate the process and feedback into the project report. One of the case study artists will also present the work produced on residency and discuss how the process of using a laser cutter impacted on the creative production of their work.

The project aims to change attitudes to creative making, and increase awareness of the advantages of new technologies for artists/craftspeople, and to develop the longer-term potential of laser cutting as part of their armoury. As artists often adapt industrial and digital technologies to work with creatively (such as the use of digital and wide-format printing to create artists' books over recent years) this project has the potential to add another dimension to artists' creative production methods.

The symposium will be an opportunity for artists, practice-led researchers and creative makers to network and identify areas in which laser cutting can add value to their own practice and professional development. The project's outcomes such as the case studies and cutting guides will support makers and artists in the creative industries as well as teachers and researchers in schools, FE and HEIs, through online access to innovative practice which will allow them to enhance their creative skills and physical output of artworks. The case studies would offer models for researchers/artists/craftspeople exploring new technology, and allow the artists involved the chance to exchange and develop ideas in their working practice.

An estimated total of 300-400 potential audience figures for the exhibitions would raise awareness of the artists' work, offer active engagement with the physical basis of creating the work and disseminate the contextual field surrounding it, highlighting the cultural value of the artworks created. Online viewing of the artworks created and critical essay, would also offer international dissemination of the outputs to artists and researchers via CFPR's bookarts website.

The project would also enhance intellectual capital through the PI's own learning experience and the extension of the exhibition to lectures and a peer-reviewed article would establish a base for the development of further research in this field.

The outcomes would also feed into UWE, Bristol's CPD classes for artists, designers, creative practitioners, micro and small companies, teachers and researchers to develop their skills and enhance knowledge in the wider creative community. The outcomes would also be disseminated through The Book Arts Newsletter (circulation 2,000) and the bookarts.uwe.ac.uk website (with an average of 959 point of entry visits per day evidenced on our international tracking figures).

Potential beneficiaries in the academic, creative arts, professional and practitioner groups would include: artists, craftspeople, printmakers, designer bookbinders, book designers, small publishers, paper engineers, designers and private presses. Groups such as the Society of Bookbinders, Designer Bookbinders, Fine Press Book Association UK, the Society of Altered Book Artists (USA) and Canadian Bookbinders' Guild would also be alerted to the outcomes.

The invited presentation of the project's intentions at the Doverodde Book Arts Festival in Denmark would inform the audience of Scandinavian and German artists, designers, curators, bookbinders and societies, which would in turn feed into the wider European network of artists and craftspeople.

Further international dissemination through external independent organisations and societies' Internet sites, include those which have externally linked to our own bookarts website, and which could also be used to publicise and disseminate the outcomes, such as: College Book Art Association; Artist Books 3.0 networking forum sites (based in Australia and Latin America, with 790 and 820 members respectively); www.kuenstlerbuecher.com and www.forumbookart.com in Germany; The Italian Association for the Promotion of Artists' Books and Private Presses; The Fine Press Book Association USA, and www.theartistsbook.org.za resource site in South Africa.

These would allow for maximum free