For more info or to read, download, print the zine (all free!), visit zinebakery.com/homemade/rainbowrolls.
Craft is DH method & technology
TECHNOLOGIES aren’t only digital
A TECHNOLOGY is just a human attempt to solve a need. Telegraph, loom, wheelchair, PUNCHCARD, printing press: tech has always been about practice, access, making different worlds, for better & worse.
What knowledge (whose?) does your tech value?
Digital Humanities forms change (apps! CD-ROMs!) What holds: critical, creative, ethical community knowledge-making experimental for social good
“Is this DH?” Does it get us closer to our values & goals?…Does Al?
#DHMAKES*
(As with most of my prints, you can purchase a copy at my store if you’d like one: store.wolfproofpress.com/product/craft-digital-humanities.)
*Digital humanities (DH) is an academic field that takes tech approaches to studying & building for the humanities & the arts, and humanities & arts approaches to understanding & making technology. The field’s values include real-time research sharing, transparency, credit, access, and social justice advocacy. #DHmakes is a years-long movement of non-digital and mixed analog-digital craft, making, and art by DH practitioners (often toward DH research and teaching, and with DH methods like data weaving and embodiment).
Some people question #DHMakes’ place in the field but not corporate AI/LMs. They are wrong.
See this post for an overview of what #DHmakes activity has looked like, and how to get involved.
Queering Historical Letterpress is a type project by Amanda Visconti (@literature__geek ) of Wolfproof Press. Amanda is a trans letterpress artist, humanities academic, and lover of making digital and analog things (including lasercutting, zinemaking, and coding for a more accessible letterpress). This project takes a historical American Type Foundry ad extolling the craftsmanship of American type and makes it queer. “My goal is to traditionally print what I’ve mocked up, replacing “American” with “Queer”, “Craftsmen” with “Craftspeople”, and adding in some colorful text shadows and extra text.” The goal for this project is to make queer and trans letterpress more visible, safer, and more welcoming for other trans folks to take part in letterpress.
Using birch plywood for the top and clear acrylic for the mounts, Amanda lasercut Bernhard Gothic Medium in their needed sorts and sizes, and mounted them to typehigh using super glue. The initial print test shows they needed to rethink kerning, particularly near the uppercase starts of words.
“This queer letterpress work is part of my larger “Transponder Project” (yes, that’s a pun, I’m trans & a researcher) at enthusiastictype.com/transponder, where I share queer (or arguably queer, or I’m makin’ ‘em queer!) historical and DIY letterpress image and catchword cuts. It’s part of my large umbrella of letterpress resources at EnthusiasticType.com, which includes web tools I coded to help folks typeset when you only have scant type, a free coauthored Queer Book History zine, and other research and learning resources contributing to a more diverse, accessible, joyful letterpress.”
All my zines are CC-licensed, so you are very welcome (nayyyy, invited!) to build on & remix them this way. Let me know if you do anything with my zines (including shelving them in your printshop, library, distro…) as I love to hear about this :)
]]>Gradient print inking looks amazing, and is actually pretty simple to do! You’ll learn how to ink VBA’s Vandercook presses to produce rainbow & other gradient inking (aka “split fountains” or “rainbow rolls”) on type, and on type-high boards to create gradient-inked backgrounds. You’ll leave knowing enough to experiment & practice on your own time at Virginia Book Arts.
If like me you’re coming from outside the formal Art World, but are a crafter, maker, or artist (or do these but think “I’m not a real artist though…”) You might also not be aware you can apply for artist residencies (aka craft residencies & similar things using terms like sabbaticals, studio & makerspace & keyholder access, awards, fellowships, scholarships) to get time, space, equipment, funding, or other support to make art. Some residencies specifically prioritize under-resourced identities, & ability to give back to a community (e.g. teachers, librarians). This zine is an overview of what’s involved, from my viewpoint as an academic => printer who’s now more comfortable applying for residencies. For more info or to read, download, print the zine (all free!), visit ZineBakery.com/homemade/residencies.
