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Photocopy Medium Within the bandwidth of new technical media and its role in the contemporary production of art, the photocopier is often used as a purely technical tool, whose specific creative and useful potential, if not entirely ignored, is certainly not frequently recognised and utilised. Since the Sixties the pioneers of "Copy Art" have filtered out a variety of artistic possibilities. From the most complicated processes at the beginning of photocopier technology to today's one-touch operation, there has been an enormous variety of artistic experimentation by a few artists. The progress of technology towards laser-digital copying has also lead to a broadening in artistic possibilities, promising an exciting if rather expensive, "area of experimentation". If l use the technology of a photocopying machine in certain ways to create a production argument with the machine, by forcing it to do new things, then, through the continuing work with the medium, a creative relationship develops. During the separate scanning processes, different image surfaces in connection with materials and objects are brought up, covered or overlaid. The medium is used rather to build on than to build up. One ends up with a unique piece of work. Since the Fluxus movement, this medium connects conceptually-applied minimalist or complex areas such as literature, performance, sculpture and installation, even making connections to the world of music. It is a medium of dialogue like no other whose special quality can hardly be shown in any of the traditional media.
Peter Huemer 1994 |