Planned Spontaneity: The Construction of a Modular System of Relief Printmaking Matrices for the Platen Press

摘要

The Modular System draws on traditional wood engraving, woodcut and letterpressudpractices. It comprises two printing surfaces and printing furniture specifically devised toudfacilitate offset and transfer relief printing.udRigid acetal resin tint blocks, hand or laser engraved, generate tone or colour that may beudapplied to more than one image. Multiple overprinting produces variant colour mixtures.udTheir function is similar to late nineteenth-century tints devised for colour letterpressudprinting. Compound printing surfaces of linoleum or vinyl are segmented and joined toudmake removable and replaceable parts. They print variable configurations in a processudthat resembles historical solutions to simultaneous colour printing: from the MentzudPsalter (1475), to the compound plates of William Congreve (1820) and the segmentedudwood engravings of John Holt Ibbetson (1819). These compound surfaces also act asudreceptors for impressions from the tint blocks. Repositioning and offsetting them isudexpedited by press furniture especially devised for the project. Registration devices areudbased on the simple Japanese kent? system and laser-cut circular chases derived fromudtraditional letterpress furniture. Printing the tint blocks directly onto the flexibleudcompound surfaces produce two viable prints that are offsets of each other. They areudreversed, but one offset is also tonally inversed. It is this unpredictable tonality that hasuddriven this experimental project.udBoth the construction and processes developed using the Modular System directedudhistorical research into functional colour relief printing which consequently unearthedudexamples that would influence the further development of the project. This has generatedudboth devices and processes capable of wider applications. Printing surfaces employed inudthe Modular System may be laser engraved or cut and adapted to use in both lithographyudand intaglio printmaking.