INTERTYPES

-Gallery I-

INTERTYPES

« […] media archaeology is both a method and an aesthetics of practicing media criticism, a kind of epistemological reversed engineering, and an awareness of moments when media themselves, not exclusively humans anymore, become active « archaeologists » of knowledge.[1] »

Through the lens of media archaeology – witnessing the replacement of old technologies with new ones, and the implications this creates – it becomes possible to pull the strings towards futures buried at the very heart of their past affiliations.

INTERTYPES looks at the cultural imprint of 3D printing through the evolution of printing techniques, investigating their historical and cultural continuity. More specifically, it is a body of work that addresses technological developments from a remediation perspective; the way in which previous tools and device influence those currently emerging, from the angle of media archaeology, and the legibility of a common thread running through our contemporary artifacts. How, for example, are historical “accidents” encoded and carried to our current digital cultures? Also threaded through the work is a reflection on the printed and moving image through history, as well as about its truth value and its capacity to convey content beyond its visible contours. Composed of 2D and 3D prints, and synthetic animations as a narrative counterpoint, the exhibition is presented as a hybrid, non-linear set of representations, interpretations and projections.

The 3D animation work expresses these issues with a particular acuity. As the title suggests – INTERTYPES – between types and periods, there is always a continuous path indicating historical markers: a Canon VarioPrint i300 industrial machine emerges from a puddle of liquid resin like the materialization of a 3D print; light passes through the circular disk of a Lumitype-Photon printer, an iconic machine marketed in 1956 that shifted typographic composition to photocomposition; clouds of smoke and powder, evoking lampblack, the historical basis of black ink and printing. Overlapping and intertwining eras, histories, lights, inks and resins, the work suggests a form of science-fictional narrative, amplified by a slowed-down temporality. Nevertheless, this semi-fictitious panorama contains and reveals a part of history: that of knowledge, technological developments and the questionable idea of progress, which find their roots in the material indices of technical reproducibility.

The way in which old technologies are linked to those we use today informs us about the constancy of a cultural filiation through time. However, it is a constancy at varying speeds, marked here and there by momentary accelerations in which the innovation becomes disruptive. Then, in these ruptures, paradigm shifts take place, in the wake of which the most prevalent spectres already are inscribed in the future and its possibilities.

Nathalie Bachand

[1] Wolfgang Ernst, « Media Archaeography – Method and Machine versus History and Narrative of Media » in Media Archaeology – Approaches, Applications, and Implications (Erkki Huhtamo et Jussi Parikka), 2011, Berkeley, University of California Press, p. 239.

Author Biography

Nathalie Bachand is a writer and curator. She is interested in the issues of digital technology and its conditions of emergence in contemporary art. Her exhibition The Dead Web – La fin, presented at Eastern Bloc in Montreal, was recently co-produced by Molior in Europe.

She is also artistic codirector at Sporobole.

Artists Biographies

Philippe-Aubert Gauthier, a mechanical engineer, has a master’s degree in science and a doctorate in mechanical engineering (acoustics), and is a professor at Université du Québec à Montréal, School of Visual and Media Arts. Working at the crossroads of art, science and technology, he is currently Associate Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media and Technology and is President of Sporobole.

Tanya St-Pierre is a visual, sound and media artist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.

Since 2003, they have been creating collaborative projects in which their respective interests and commitments are addressed in exchanges that lead to hybrid artistic proposals. This is the result of their self-critical jousting and inventions as a duo. Their work has been presented in Quebec, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

The artists thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University, Sporobole and the Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke, as well as Gentiane Bélanger, Sophie Drouin and Nathalie Bachand.

Video credit : Tanya St-Pierre et Philippe-Aubert Gauthier

Photo credit : Jean-Michael Seminaro