Edinburgh Napier University

  The ‘Born Digital – New Materialities’ print portfolio is the result of a digitally mediated open call “exchange” survey, examining the notion of “printmaking 2.0”. It is part of research examining the physical and temporal parameters of post-physical print making practice through the exploration and application of digital processes in making and cultural shifts in digital participation, being undertaken by the curator/researcher at Grays School of Art – Robert Gordon University. The research is founded on questions raised through the researcher’s professional activities, of printmaking practice and teaching activities in Contemporary Art Practice. Through this cumulative experience the researcher has become cogniscent of how the physical and temporal boundaries of the transferred image are being redefined by rapid developments in both the technical practice of digital process and more critically the shifts resulting from mass digital participation. With resulting questions concerning the very nature of digital printmaking in these terms and in respect to the physical & temporal boundaries of the digital print itself. The objective of this survey print exchange was to explore the practice of peer printmakers to detect markers of transition between traditional and new forms of printmaking. The survey also sought to examine notions of materiality set against these new concepts of electronic consumption for the printmaking 2.0 object, where questions of allocation and signature have arisen within the electronic distribution of digitally mediated prints. Consequently questions of permanence, materiality, authenticity, authorisation and allocation set against a possible dialectic of physical and de-materialised practice were explored. In curating this exchange, social network platforms were used to coordinate, track and develop meaningful links with the artists. This portfolio represents a significant snapshot of the digitally mediated print works of 49 international print artists