The importance of Printmaking in education ABOUT This project will investigate the importance of Printmaking in the education of Art & Design students. Nowadays institutions have been focusing on improving their digital studios more than in keeping their workshops running, not to say that in the current downturn of the economy colleges started thinking about cutting costs and therefore specialized spaces are under threat. RELEVANCE The main idea is to raise awareness about the current situation concerning the closure of specialized workshops at the London College of Communication. This report can become useful for other institutions but the initial idea is to collect information with the aim of supporting the workshops at LCC. Printmaking is an important process to establish knowledge in the Art & Design field, it enables students to experiment with colour, media and proccess as well as to understand the whole process of designing – from creation to competition. Without this experience it is very unlikely that students will understand how things happen and, more importantly, how to achieve the desired outcome. PLAN The idea is to gather information through a relevant literature review including books, magazines and web sources and to design a qualitative interview. First year students, recent graduates, industry professionals, tutors and technicians will be interviewed with a set of questions that will leave space for them to express their experiences. There is the possibility of designing an open discussion where a small group of people would corroboratively speak about the topic which can be interesting in terms of letting the subject flow more naturally. A quantitative questionnaire might be used if found necessary. CHAPTER SUBJECTS • About Printmaking (a quick overview about the processes and use) • The importance of Printmaking in art & design education • The current situation with workshops at LCC (will include interviews) • What can be done • Conclusion BIBLIOGRAPHY Printmaking Today publication (since 1991) How to be an explorer of the World (Keri Smith) Visual Research (Ian Noble & Russel Hestley) Design Research Writing (Ellen Lupton & Albert Miller) Counterprint (Karel Martens) Prints and Visual Communication (Ivins, W.M. JR) Printmaking Today: an introduction to the graphic arts (Jules Heller) The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Walter Benjamin) The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility (Walter Benjamin) Teaching at the Bauhaus (Rainer K. Wick) Printmaking, a medium for basic design (Peter Weaver) Exploring printmaking for young people (Harvey Daniels) New technologies and printmaking (Richard Hamilton)
other things to look at: Greenwich Printmakers For print only (web) Gehrard Richter (writings) Miro (writings) Peter Ford (writings) Steven Heller (writings) Andy Warhol Calma Georgia Russell Paul Catheral Tom Purvis Dlup (web) Roy Lichenstein John Pilsworth Samuel Simon + more question: should I use Printmaking with caps throughout the report or without (printmaking vs Printmaking?) Thanks!
Hi Ana
ReplyDeleteThis looks both interesting and pretty clear. Well done!
I would start by positioning your report within the context of the inclusion of hand skills within art and design higher education curricula.
Then hone it down by saying you are investigating ‘the role played by printmaking in the education etc…’. A more neutral start than ‘the importance of’! You can build up to/conclude with how important it is. First you have to prove it!
Can you find a quote from a graphic designer about the importance of printmaking in their education? (Richard Hollis?!). Be great to have that in the abstract. You could try to find an opposing quote from a higher education institution saying that they are in danger or need to close etc. Look for anything by Ian Farren, from Uni of Cumbria on ‘the future of craft subjects’.
I think you have enough knowledge on the subject to write your abstract in quite a lot more detail already. Try to do so…
I think you need more detail in your plan. What are you going to be asking them? Is it that you want to know how their printmaking experiences helped inform their process as designers? Is that you want to know which aspects of their education their valued the most (in order to draw out the importance of printmaking)? Think of a huge list of questions and then add some of them in here to lend more focus and make it less woolly.
I would suggest printmaking with a small ‘p’. Capital letters are used for names generally.
Catherine