Methodology of the Edition: Cultural Exchange through Contemporary Printmaking for Knowledge Acquisition and Academic Cooperation

Methodology of the Edition: 50x50=75 is an international printmaking project consisting of a box set of 75 editioned original prints by 75 staff and students from three universities and three countries; University of Brighton (UoB), Nagoya University of Art (NUA), and King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, Ladkrabang, (KMITL) Thailand.  The project was curated by Duncan Bullen (UoB), Professor Masayuki Nishimura (NUA) and Professor Kunjana Dumsopee (KMITL).
 
The project offered participants the same task; to produce a printed image on paper dimensions of 50x50cm using any print media from traditional, digital and hybrid processes. This opportunity to share artistic research, through creative approaches to printmaking and to engage with cross-cultural exchange has enabled student-staff interaction through professional educational opportunities and real world challenges.

Bullen contributed to the exhibition as curator and exhibitor, as well as leading a workshop in Nagoya, and giving conference presentations in Nagoya and Bangkok. His artistic research for this project was multifaceted, but its main focus was in the development and making of an artwork which tests an ongoing interest in artistic research that aims through material practices to join hand, eye and mind with mechanical processes to question visual acuity, and in this instance, to challenge the notion that a printed image consists of the transference of ink from one substrate to another. For the exhibition Bullen developed a methodological approach which involved manual drawing, the construction of digital templates, and the testing of a laser cutter to scorch the paper with an image. The resulting 'print' involved no inking and was 'drawn' mechanically with a laser, which scorched the paper to mimic the hand drawn mark and was set to different depths to create tonal contrast.

The project was exhibited in Nagoya and Bangkok ((July – August 2016) and at the University of Brighton in March 2017. for the exhibition in the Edward Street Gallery at UoB, Bullen made the curatorial decision to display the prints horizontally on tables, rather than vertically on walls, thus honouring the production of print as a 'flat bed' process.

At each iteration of the project symposia and workshop activities exploring the theme of cultural exchange, collaboration and printmaking as practice led research took place. Two separate publications were produced one published to coincide with the opening exhibition in Japan, by KMITL and the other at the close of the project and published by NUA.