From Printer Dust Till Graphics Dawn
In this presentation, we partly follow this year's topic "RE:imagination"
and will explore old but not old-fashioned printer control languages such
as HP-GL (1970s and 1980s) and PostScript (1980s) and device-specific commands
for dot matrix printers (1980s) to better understand how we relate to printers
and printing today. What can we learn from these languages from current
graphic practices and perspectives? What context were these languages
developed in? Which aesthetics can be created with them today and which
tools are needed to do so? How can the sharing culture of the FLOSS/LGM
community be applied to such old "closed source" devices? This artistic,
media archeological, and auto-ethnographic research is part of the
Master Experimental Publishing (XPUB) in Rotterdam, where we, students and
teachers, studied these languages together in the first 3 months of this
year on the most obsolete and almost discarded printing devices of our university.
Expect a presentation about frustrations with serial connections, dust removal
with compressed air, porous plastic that disintegrates into small pieces,
glitch aesthetic with PostScript and the practice of working within the obstacles
of dying devices. Watch out for undead pen plotters & printers and their
obscure languages!