Exploration within screen printing
I decided to explore by seeing what my recent prints would look like scanned and then made digital. I wanted to expand upon the meaning of materiality from print to screen and experiment further to see how they would look on screen as another form of medium towards the tactile nature of materiality. I decided to use some of my original prints from my letter press workshop to then incorporate into screen printing by scanning the designs back to digitise them and then printing them out to be exposed via the silk screens.
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| Setting up my screen for print (Jones,2023) |
Continuing to explore the Alef letter, I decided to try different things and see how it would look visually. I decided to add type to some of the print designs from the early stages of preparing my screens for print. I feel overall that the outcomes seen below have proven that you can adapt your print designs to fit inside digital outputs, it also visually adds further texture to the original designs which creates further connotations to what I feel materiality is and can be within my own practice.
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| The image shows further screen printing experimentations (Jones, 2023) |
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| The image shows further screen printing experimentations (Jones, 2023) |
The above image shows another scanned image of a recent screen-printed image. Taking a closer look at this outcome, I feel that the faded marks add an additional material response to the work. The use of different paper stock which can be seen above allowed me to explore the materiality of a tactile nature as well, making this print effectively add further layers to the overall design of the print.
I feel this could be a strong area to explore further, by fusing together both physical print and digital design. This will allow me to push boundaries within my current methodology and allow room to improve my image-making and further understanding of my own practice within the narrative of materiality.
Video showing screen print experimentations (Jones, 2023)
Video showing screen print experimentations (Jones, 2023)
This process was important to apply to my working practice, as in screen printing it's always a good idea to run test prints within any given design. Using newsprint is a cheap and effective paper stock to print on and see how your designs come out before the final printing stages on paper stock that would be purchased via the uni art shop.
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| The image shows further screen printing experimentations (Jones, 2023) |
Having this time to continue experimenting with different print mediums, has allowed me to push myself creatively and think about different ways I can adapt to my question of research. I feel that materiality is starting to show more prevalent in my working practice and how it supports my methodology. The current responses within print design have given me a fresh outlook on how we can treat typography in a contemporary way, whilst allowing, myself to find ways to visually express the Alef glyph.
Whilst undertaking this part of exploration through screen printing, I decided to research Donald Schön's Reflective Practitioner which had been mentioned in recent lectures. What I found to be a ground-breaking discovery, was that being reflective in my practice has shown me it is just as important as the resolution itself. This is because Schön writes that "Reflective practitioners are professionals who think about their work and learn from their experience in order to innovate" (Schön, 1984).
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| Book cover showing Donald Schön's Reflective Practitioner (1984) |
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This reflective process involves being aware of your actions as a practitioner in an area of interest that you want to unpack further, whilst understanding the reasoning behind the decisions made. I feel that being open to questioning and revising one's strategies based on feedback and experience, allows you to learn better and become reflective in everything that you do.
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| (Schön, 1984,p. 19) |
I feel that Schön clearly emphasises the importance of creating environments that promote this type of reflective practice, where professionals can explore, challenge assumptions, and learn from their own actions. This creates a strong engagement within such experiences that can be shared with others to help in their own practice.
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| (Schön, 1984,p. 24) |
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| (Schön, 1984,p. 26) |
Overall, I have been able to identify Schön's "The Reflective Practitioner" to be beneficial in my own working practice. It has allowed me to visually identify how I shape my approaches to be more reflective in my work. This encourages me to embrace my ongoing learning, adaptability, and critical thinking which is essential in my methodology approach to being an effective communicator in my practice.
Current thoughts
There seem to be so many more possibilities now within my current working practice stages, which has allowed me to become more reflective in finding out what materiality is and how it can support my practice. I feel that with everything I have explored so far, screen printing seems to be a strong visual outlet for me to express my ideas visually and continue to create images.
What I would consider now is to print large scale, this is to allow me to see my designs bigger and give me more space to play around with different compositions and explore layering techniques within screen printing.
So, the plan is to explore even further now by narrowing down my developed ideas on a larger scale by adapting them accordingly to fit within large poster designs. In fact, this is another keen interest of mine which I had briefly covered in my BA major but have wanted to explore further in my studies. So, for me to have this opportunity to create posters that will be part of my resolution outcomes for this module will be great for my development and portfolio of work.
Here's to the next stages of my practice-based research journey!
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