From Printer Dust Till Graphics Dawn—talk
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Abstract
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!