Photocopier Art

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During my year abroad in North Carolina State University I was introduced to different ways of creating images and type. One of the most exciting and fun was Photocopy art. The application of a colour photocopier is far more advanced than just reproducing duplicates of an image. You can play around with colour, transparency, negatives etc. It can allow you to experiment and create varied and intriguing images and when you know what effects you want, you can create some amazing effects and illusions. One of the best features about using the photocopier is the physical quality of the finished image, particularly when you've layered image on top of image, you can see the images below coming through and it give it a certain quality that whilst you can produce the same image on a computer, you don't get the same effect of seeing the process that went into making it evident in the image. In the same way that Warhol's screen prints are unique, the way the ink sits on the page and the individual marks and scratches of the machine create unique indentations on the image, that to produce the same image again and again results in slight variations individual to each print. The colour quality is also impressive, you can get a wide variety of tone from grainy, faded to strong colour blocks, and as you run the page through the copier again and again the image quality can degrade in a way that a computer can't reproduce. As students we are always being told to step away from the computer. It can be used to fake a lot of different media, but there is something unmistakable about the authentic thing and being so used to the computer, when you produce an entire image without it the final result is so unlike anything else you've every produced, from the colour, style and print quality there is an overwhelming sense of the designers hand in it that is exciting and instantly notice able.