Welcome to 4.s14 Publication Studio: Copies and Bad Translation

Instructor: Bo-Won Keum (she/her)

Time: Mondays 10am–1pm

Location: 3-329

To access the syllabus, click here.

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Beyond

Booklets with Angela Lorenzo, Harvard Art Museum

Week 15 — Final Booklets

Week 14 — Final Presentations

https://frolickingfrog.github.io/catfishmatrix/personality-matrix.html

Week 13 — Project updates

Week 11 — Project updates + overview of the documentation booklet

Brief for the documentation booklet here.

Week 10 — Project Proposal Week

Week 9 — with Rachel Ossip

Link to class Write-y Draw-ey results.

Week 7 — with Bye Bye Binary

[ZOOM RECORDING HERE]

Links:

https://typo-inclusive.net/

https://typotheque.genderfluid.space/

Week 6

Field Trip

https://wavefarm.org/radio/swr/schedule/5gkdkc

Week 5

RISO at Venus Print Lab

Reflections on the workshop below:

Name: Chloe Tsui

Oftentimes, I consider Riso to be an imperfect printing process, no matter how much care we put into lining up the registers or drying the prints between colours, there seems to be some elements that are beyond our control such as the track marks from picking up the paper or offsets generated by paper misalignments when being fed into the printer. I find that given the purpose of risograph printing (to cheaply and quickly reproduce work at large quantities) I am more forgiving of these ‘perfect imperfections’ that leave traces of human work processes in comparison to intaglio and lithography (relief printing techniques) where the act of making an impression into a plate or stone calls for a level of precision and care that is translated into a desire for perfect prints.

Name: Shantelle Ortiz

While the genealogy of a poor image is dubious, the risograph is dependent on a dubious genealogy to create a new work using previous pictures and texts. I found the process of creating the zine, and more specifically creating multiple zines using risograph printing, to best demonstrate the significance of the iterative and discrepancy-filled risograph printing process. Numerous copies were made of the same texts and images and yet not a single zine was the same. The individuality present in risograph printing is fascinating as we learn through each new print and as we learn to accept the variety present throughout the process.

Name: Yiwen Huang

Although I was not able to contribute to the riso

Name: Reishan McIntosh

A machine full of quirks, the risograph surprised me in more ways than I expected. I had only seen it through examples of beautifully crafted work — layers of color slightly offset to create a distinct, textured output. Using the risograph, however, felt clunkier and more finicky than I had anticipated, though it was a much needed lesson in patience. The imperfections in the prints and the wet ink on my fingertips disrupted the perfection I had imagined, yet they also taught me to embrace those marks. I’d love to keep experimenting with the machine, seeing how different colors overlap and blend. Binding everyone’s prints together created an unexpected but nice mixture of storytelling and outcome.

Week 4

We met here and typeset this quote.

Reflections on the workshop below:

Name: Reishan McIntosh

During our time at the Beaver Press, my main takeaway was the meticulousness that comes with using the press. From laying out the text and making sure it's in the right direction to carefully sliding it into place and securing everything before preparing it, every step required attention to detail. The act of re-inking the letters each time, centering the paper, making sure it was positioned correctly under the press, and the three pulls that lowered the press all started to feel like choreography—a collaboration between all the students. Even with all that, the prints still had slight variations (too much ink, too little ink, a letter starting to shift). In my opinion, it still turned out lovely and added to the charm of letterpress printing.

Name: Shantelle Ortiz

When choosing this class, collaboration was not on my mind, however, using the printing press is an incredibly collaborative process. I greatly enjoyed the team effort and discussions that went into deciding which quote would be printed and what words would be blacked out. The printing press is deceptive in its simplicity as it truly is an industrial operation. At times, handling the many individual characters was frustrating, but the final outcome was worth the incredible hassle that accompanies the wonderful operation of the printing press.

Name: Simmone Stearn

Overconfidence! I was surprised by my ability to feel overconfident during the Beaver Press workshop, working with a process with which I had no familiarity. I was quick to learn, however, that the printing press requires a deep working knowledge and familiarity to do quickly and smoothly. For instance, my initial reaction was to set the letters in backwards order, thinking it would be mirrored along a vertical and horizontal axis. Additionally, when transferring the type onto the press, I was eager to move quickly and neglected to use the suggested technique of keeping the typeset on the surface rather than lifting it into the air. The printing press workshop was a wonderful experience and, in a way, humbling.

Name: Yiwen Huang

I love collaborative labor and how it is translated into the final product. I found myself remembering more the actual process of making—the way we arranged letters, choosing ink colors, and operated the machine many times—rather than the final outcome. Yet, the white-on-white format gave a richer physicality to our final product. The quasi-transparent color shifts the viewer’s attention to the tiny volume created by the contact between the machine, paper, and ink. It was a workshop full of contacts and interfaces.

Name: Ahzin Nam

It was striking how labor-intensive it was to find the right characters, line them up, and press the letters - and to think this was once someone’s entire life, mastering every step to produce a single book. As we started picking up the process and finding small ways to speed it up, I couldn’t help but wonder just how fast professional teams must have worked, moving in sync to churn out page after page.

Name:

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