Plagiarism/Collaboration
Etchings
Two 18”x8” “Prints”
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This piece consists of two 18” prints placed next to one another with an 18” gap in the middle. One print was made using the traditional printmaking of etching which took well over 25 hours to produce and the other a simple scanned edited slightly and printed copy of the original that took about 5 minutes.
To give you a general idea of why the etching took so long, here is a general overview of the process:
- Prep a zinc plate by rubbing a abrasive compound by hand for 45 minutes
- Place the plate on a heating plate and roll on a layer of wax ground
- Slowly apply
- Meticulously sketch your image into the ground to expose the metal
- Place your plate into acid for x amount of time depending on how dark you want your line (the longer you leave it in the acid the more the acid can etch and bite into the exposed area)
- Carefully paint more wax ground to cover the lightest areas so they are not etched (eroded by the acid) anymore
- Repeat steps 4-5 until all shades are complete.
- File down all sides of the plate by hand until you get four perfect 45 degree angles
- Cut each piece of colored paper for every section that is colored
- Hand ink the plate on a hot plate
- Hand rub the plate to remove excess ink
- Wash your hands
- Coat each piece of colored paper with rice glue and carefully place each color one by one exactly where you want them to print on the plate
- Prep a piece of print paper with water
- Place the plate down and then align the print paper on top with equal margins on each
- Hand crank the press at a consistent speed
- Gently lift the paper from the plate
- Place paper in a pressurized flat surface to dry flat
VS
Printing the duplicate:
- Scan image
- Edit in photoshop for color correction
- Trim
This piece was about bringing up more questions in the viewers than answers:
- If all knowledge is derived from a source where do our “original” ideas come from?
- What is originality? Does it exist?
- What validates novelty?
- What is the value of originality besides the piece of mind of being, having, or creating something that is original?
- If the majority of viewers spend less than 30 seconds viewing your piece, and are probably not going to sit with it in order to understand it, is there a purpose to putting in the extra nuanced effort?
- Although plagiarism and collaboration are in essence the same; the use of different sources of knowledge to resolve an issue, why do they have completely different connotations in different settings. And why do we structure our educational system so strongly on molding people to be individuals who see helping as plagurizing, when all sucuessful people know they couldn’t have done it alone?
Just a thought. I am an artist because I am passionate and interested in pursuing ideas, even minor thoughts details that are typically overlooked, with great intensity. With this true, boring is hard to find.
