Seeing Touch: Haptics, Temporalities and Metamorphosis in the Woodburytype
Lead Research Organisation:
University of the West of England
Department Name: Fac of Arts Creative Ind and Education
Abstract
This doctorate will take the gelatine relief of the Woodburytype beyond its traditional use as
photographic reproduction method, exploiting its material and processual properties as an imprint to give
graphic expression to touch, time and human/object interactions.
Objectives
To extend the methodology of Woodburytype printing to encompass large dimensions with increased
relief depth, and to establish ways of stabilizing the large gelatine deposits, as well as exploring the
creative potential of going beyond thresholds of material control.
To interrogate the aesthetic and conceptual nuances afforded by the relationship between surface and
image in the photographic, digital and direct versions of the Woodburytype. (Benjamin 2007, Marks
2002)
To produce work that collapses the distinction between optical and tactile knowledge, and to
investigate the heuristic qualities this affords. (Nancy 2005, Deleuze and Guattarti 1997)
To situate print methodologies in relation to contemporary fine art discourses of image criticality and
image recognition, demonstrating the tensions between touch, veracity, resemblance and illusion. (Didi-
Huberman 1997, Trodd 2017)
To make artworks that scrutinize traces of human inhabitation and our interactions with objects,
evoking bodily and geological temporal narratives in the materiality of the artworks, and raising issues of
sustainability. (Harmen 2011, Bennett 2010)
Methodology
The doctoral project will use historical data for the Woodburytype, technical innovation, practice-based
research and theoretical studies in a mutually informing dialogue. As a fabricator for the technology
specialist Factum Arte I have developed a hybridised woodbury method in which high resolution scan
12 / 17
data was CNC milled into plates. I have also started developing ways of taking 2.5D casts directly from
surfaces of the world e.g. the eroded surface of a tabletop. Utilising the research into the Woodburytype
at the CFPR, and other historical records from archives this project will investigate how to expand the
scale and the surface height of the images. Action research using the printroom as a laboratory will refine
the innovations through empirical recordings and material experimentation. These novel surface
methodologies will be incorporated into practice enquiry, enabling a focused interrogation of the
proposal's theoretical aims through individual artworks and installation contexts. Group exhibitions,
workshop demonstrations and artist talks will generate dialogue with other practitioners and the public,
facilitating critical reflection, and dissemination, of the emerging work.
photographic reproduction method, exploiting its material and processual properties as an imprint to give
graphic expression to touch, time and human/object interactions.
Objectives
To extend the methodology of Woodburytype printing to encompass large dimensions with increased
relief depth, and to establish ways of stabilizing the large gelatine deposits, as well as exploring the
creative potential of going beyond thresholds of material control.
To interrogate the aesthetic and conceptual nuances afforded by the relationship between surface and
image in the photographic, digital and direct versions of the Woodburytype. (Benjamin 2007, Marks
2002)
To produce work that collapses the distinction between optical and tactile knowledge, and to
investigate the heuristic qualities this affords. (Nancy 2005, Deleuze and Guattarti 1997)
To situate print methodologies in relation to contemporary fine art discourses of image criticality and
image recognition, demonstrating the tensions between touch, veracity, resemblance and illusion. (Didi-
Huberman 1997, Trodd 2017)
To make artworks that scrutinize traces of human inhabitation and our interactions with objects,
evoking bodily and geological temporal narratives in the materiality of the artworks, and raising issues of
sustainability. (Harmen 2011, Bennett 2010)
Methodology
The doctoral project will use historical data for the Woodburytype, technical innovation, practice-based
research and theoretical studies in a mutually informing dialogue. As a fabricator for the technology
specialist Factum Arte I have developed a hybridised woodbury method in which high resolution scan
12 / 17
data was CNC milled into plates. I have also started developing ways of taking 2.5D casts directly from
surfaces of the world e.g. the eroded surface of a tabletop. Utilising the research into the Woodburytype
at the CFPR, and other historical records from archives this project will investigate how to expand the
scale and the surface height of the images. Action research using the printroom as a laboratory will refine
the innovations through empirical recordings and material experimentation. These novel surface
methodologies will be incorporated into practice enquiry, enabling a focused interrogation of the
proposal's theoretical aims through individual artworks and installation contexts. Group exhibitions,
workshop demonstrations and artist talks will generate dialogue with other practitioners and the public,
facilitating critical reflection, and dissemination, of the emerging work.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Susanne Klein (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Constanza Dessain (Student) |