thesis : from screen to screen

toronto | 2019
experimental design, printmaking

My undergrad thesis is continuous research and learning-by-doing experimental design; consisting of projects focus on the process and the footprints of exploration. The thesis experiments are wrapped under the topic of digital and analogue—studying their similarities and differences, and how the two opposite concepts interplay.

from screen to screen is one of the thesis project composites of computer logic and
craftsmanship. Celebrating the combination of perfectly rational and uncontrolled flaws.

instructors | Ali Qadeer, Richard Hunt
design | connie tung

1. coding : primitive shape

The project started with printing coding art to algorithmic printing. Using screen printing
as an analogue medium is the best way to demonstrate imperfection; the thickness of the ink,
the material of the paper, the height between the screen and the substance, and the pressure
will all affect the final print could all result in different unpredictable outcomes.

︎︎︎coding using drawbot

︎︎︎screen printing outcome

︎︎︎codng using proccessing

2. algorithmic printing

After discovering that screenprinting a digital composition is not making breakthroughs,
I turned my focus on the logic of the programming language rather than the actual coding.

Through the making and reflecting process, I started to embrace the beauty of imperfection
and how these flaws identify each artefact with its unique story, resulting in the same
algorithm printing different outcomes. It reminds me of the Japanese Kintsugi, meaning
"to join with gold", a repairing technique that splices broken ceramics together with gold—
highlighting its brokenness. Inspired by the Kintsugi technique, I decided to use gold to
present my next experiment underlining the imperfection of the perfect.

I started printing in computer logic—algorithmic order.