Goals:
- Before Monday: Mock-up and plan book-structures.
- Before Monday: Choose and begin book-form, including content, format, and cells.
- Compose and print single-sheet books.
- Continue documentation (following the pattern of Week 2).
- Clean from the JE session (type redistributed).
- Prepare display of our work, for viewing at the end of the week.
- Prints (2):
- Group single-sheet book projects
Monday, July 15
Eleventh class session. Meet in the Letterpress Lab (Wall 148). Lab-work on single-sheet books. Group-members should compose their cells or panels as determined, working together on the layout of the book. If your groups is planning a background, printing on the reverse of the sheet, and/or a two-color project, part of the group may consider printing those elements today while others set their cells/panels.
Also: as we print, begin considering elements of our exhibition. We will display at least one (and probably more) of each print we have made, including the prints from this week. Groups will supply a small descriptive note for each print they have made, including how it was done, the inspiration behind it, title (if any), and any challenges involved. That note will be approximately 75 – 100 words, may be drawn directly from your journals, and will be displayed with the prints during our exhibition.
Homework:
Viewing, Reading, Writing, and Group Work/Planning: As with Week 2, document and compose images and commentary on your project. Continue reviewing your images and film; commenting on them, and reviewing/revising your group plans.
Tuesday, July 16
Twelfth class session. Meet in the Letterpress Lab (Wall 148). Cells/panels should be composed and prepared for printing. Be prepared to print by Wednesday, if not today.
Homework:
Viewing, Reading, Writing, and Group Work/Planning: As with Week 2, document and compose images and commentary on your project. Continue reviewing your images and film; commenting on them, and reviewing/revising your group plans.
Wednesday, July 17
Thirteenth class session. Meet in the Letterpress Lab (Wall 148). Printing. Consider improvisational or hand-inked elements, as with our expressive work. Edition enough prints to allow for some trial-and-error in assembly/preparation. Try to print at least 15.
Also: collect prints from throughout the week, selecting the best/worst/ most interesting to display in our exhibition. Also consider: do we want to display equipment?
Homework:
Viewing, Reading, Writing, and Group Work/Planning: As with Week 2, document and compose images and commentary on your project. Continue reviewing your images and film; commenting on them, and reviewing/revising your group plans.
Thursday, July 18
Fourteenth class session. Meet in the Letterpress Lab (Wall 148). Overflow time: collect prints and transport them to the library; if necessary, while this is happening, other group members can finalize printing, cut and trim (maze books), and fold (concertina books). If we have finished all of the above, we will begin re-organizing the lab.
Homework:
Viewing, Reading, Writing: Finalize group commentary on your project. When possible, try to connect your work to our readings and/or the history of these practices or objects from Rare Books. The group-member maintaining the story should send a digital copy to me by Thursday night at 9 PM; preferably in Word with the images embedded and the film (if any) linked. With your permission, I will post this to the letterpress lab website, which we will use in our final exhibition.
Friday, July 19
**Two sessions**
Study Hall: During study hall, we will meet in the Library Classroom (the “Fishbowl”) to celebrate and share our work with other members of the July Experience!
If we have enough prints, we may choose to give some away (that’s up to you, though!). Your process-stories will be on display as well, and your exhibition notes will be attached to the relevant prints. Be prepared to share and discuss with your fellow JE students.
Fifteenth class session. Meet in the Letterpress Lab (Wall 148). In our last session, we will meet in the lab one last time. We will clean, gather our favorite prints to take home (if they aren’t on display), and share final thoughts on the overall experience. While letterpress is coming back from the brink of extinction, it’s still a relatively rare practice that not everyone has experience or will experience. What does that mean to us, as we wrap up our work together?
