Why Print?
Mia:
Current Activity: 3D printing, getting by
Maybe the answer to this question lies in the fact that all of us keep coming back to this format, despite how much of a pain we know it can be when we are producing. For me, the feeling of seeing and holding the physical manifestation of any idea cannot be matched. I often think about when our team received the first copies of Issue 01 back in September 2023, and how special that moment of unboxing was. On a less sentimental note, now more than ever it is important to catalogue, archive, and collect physical materials, because it is a way of consuming media that is beginning to escape us – if it hasn’t already. It is near impossible to comprehend the sheer amount of images and information that I pass by everyday, both in real life and online, and holding on to printed matter is a small way that I feel like I can ground myself in what actually inspires me and makes me think. I also have an impending fear that everything I have ever saved online as a reference will one day soon disappear all of a sudden. I don’t think that would be the worst thing that could happen, but in case it does, I will be glad to have my stack of papers next to me.
Camille:
Current Activity: Restmaxxing, biking in the snow
I feel that print media is becoming increasingly rooted in counterculture, specifically because it is so much more complicated to produce than a digital upload. Screenprinting the magazine ourselves (Zach printing it and me lending a hand) changed my perspective on creating a print. The process has become more intimate, cutting the pages by hand and staying up late to handprint the copies has rooted our practice in print as a medium. I think societies are becoming too removed from labour in general; technological advances now cater to ever-accelerating wait times and the maximization of convenience. That’s why print is dying: every part of it requires patience, and it can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. The result is worth it, however, as overcoming the simple hurdle of physicality and actually holding a print overrides any desire for ease, because not everything should be convenient. Meaning cannot be created without effort. To quote The Little Prince, "it is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important"
Sam:
[Currently in Thailand]
Zach:
Current Activity: Training zombies, growing my brain
As someone who's been screenprinting for around 7 years (comin' on 8!) It's hard to give a straightforward, concise answer. I love lots of different things about print, and I guess it really comes down to the type of print we're talking about. My primary source of dopamine when screenprinting (and why I've stuck to it for many years) is the fantastic blend of technicality and artistic expression. Whenever I look at artwork of any kind, the first thing I ask is, "How did you make this? Take me through the steps." I'm less interested in the piece being aesthetically pleasing in itself and more so in the process of its creation. In other words, I'm obsessive over technique, and manual printing suits that obsession perfectly. I had an interesting conversation in the studio with an excellent graphic designer who's also a part-time screenprinter, and he was speaking about the importance of having something you've made exist in the physical world. He recalled having thousands of Photoshop draft files sitting on his laptop and how he felt a sense of meaninglessness, one after the other, lost to the digiverse. Once we start pulling these things out of the screen and onto material, our perspectives on the work or photograph or writing completely change; it exists now, it's tactile, you can hold it, look at it from different angles, share it. For me, the importance of print lies in the feeling of permanence and its physicality. I have lost far too many files, photographs and ideas to the digital realm.