the_print_fest

Feel invited to join the second print fest, taking place at the print studio S13 of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. the_print_fest continues as a series of events in which new teaching content is playfully illuminated and conveyed, and sensitised to a wide variety of concepts and materialities. The potential in art education, the implicit transfer of knowledge and peer learning are also expanded by the diverse participants that celebrate working together in a print workshop.

Based on an art affiliated community with practitioners of the printed image in its many forms in 2-3-4 dimensions, and special guests from the creative scene, the aim is to enable the awareness within the group to understand the diversity of different ways of working by intuitively absorbing the shared working situation.

We will be spending time together to play, experiment, learn, wonder, and celebrate. The emphasis during this fest lies on the new and old technologies, and how new forms of intelligence are partaking in the process of creating, within the arts. Some years ago I could recognize an uprise of the need for translating algorithmic input into materialized output within the print studio, time has come to build awareness for the concepts and consequences that the Industrial Revolution 5.0 is bringing us about. How can we translate the basic understanding of Correlation of the AI into the earthly approach of Causality, and what will we discover on our journey to do so? What do we want to see in a hypothetical general artistic AI? 
‘AI image generation can be referred to as ‘the art of copying.’ Says Dr. Lev Manovich on Art Basel: “In my opinion, museums that present the history of art through the lens of Modernism and emphasize uniqueness and originality do not allow us to fully appreciate the importance of copying historically. (…) The universe of AI imagery created by amateurs today reminds us of how cultures have always operated: through constant imitation and small modifications."*

The use of pen plotters and other drawing machines has become an important part of the contemporary generative and digital art scene, and so is the basic need of mark making something ever-present for creators. We will be able to gather experience in how we can operate such pen plotters, as Liz Melchor brings them to interact with, during the fest.

We will have at the same time several large format blocks of Linoleum, wich are going to be carved during the fest, as a collaborative project between the students of University of Art and Design Linz and Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and as well in cooperation with students of the Academy of Fine Arts Budapest. The hand carving and pen plotting will take place in the inner yard of the Academy.

The Art Collective The She Machine will present themselves, three women in code, who share their approaches on art through code. Besides several lectures that will be announced in more detail soon, we are still having a show, and a screening. 

A group of 15 young artists from the Academy of Fine Arts Budapest will be showing works in the print labs and the Souterrain corridors. Special Guest Ilya Kreines is curating this time the moving image section of the fest, by a selection of animated films from artist from Prague. 

As it is a fest, we will celebrate with some food and drinks, and there will be possibility to support this new open format on site by donations and by buying limited edition signed and numbered posters of the fest. Please bring your cup, and an apron, beside your curiosity, knowledge and empathy.

We are looking forward to your visit to this and hopefully many more celebrations, in an open access setting where the public as well as institutions open up, feel and create their embeddedness and connection together.

Exhibitors:
János Bíró; Anna Czár; Zsófi Dadányi; Eszter Nóra Dicső; Júlia Jakabos; Laura Laviv; Dániel Lebeda; Aiofe Murphy; Péter Zoltán Öllinger; Beáta Sisák
Gergely Suplicz

*Dr. Lev Manovich is a visual artist, writer, and one of the world's most influential digital culture theorists.
Published June 1, 2023
https://www.artbasel.com/stories/lev-manovich