Beyond the human printer

The human printer is a group of people that replicate CMYK, black and white and spot colour prints through arduous use of felt tips.

By drawing many dots in a half tone pattern, they build up pictures not unlike those you’d find in print, but with a slight merging and softening of details. Of course, unlike with an electric printer, each print is different.

There’s probably a lot to be said about how it’s a reflection on the artistic desire to rebel against or subvert technologies that threaten the artist (such as impressionism in the wake of the invention/discovery of photography), but that could get a bit pretentious.

So instead I thought I’d introduce you to Louise Naunton Morgan, who I discovered today through It’s Nice That’s graduate series. She’s one of the printers, but I found the rest of her work really interesting. Here are some of my particular favourites: