In this workshop, you will take on a basic understanding of risographic duplication. You'll also use the program P5*js (a popular version of Processing).
Consider the prompt of the post-media era. Instead of thinking of media culture transitioning linearly from "mass media" to "social media", how can traditional print media work in a post-media fashion?
"Should one be nostalgic about ‘the good old days’ when things were as they were, regardless of their mode of representation? But did these ‘good old days’ ever exist anywhere other than in the scientific and positivist imaginary? Already, during the Paleolithic age – with its own myths and rituals – expressive mediation had distanced itself from ‘reality’. In any case, all prior formations of power and their particular ways of shaping the world have been deterritorialised. Money, identity, social control fall under the aegis of the smart card. Far from being a return to earth, the events in Iraq made us lift off into an almost delirious universe of mass-media subjectivity. New technologies foster efficiency and madness in the same flow. The growing power of software engineering does not necessarily lead to the power of Big Brother. In fact it is way more cracked than it seems. It can blow up like a windshield under the impact of molecular alternative practices."
You will work in p5*js. Make an account there.
No concrete deliverables for this workshop. You are asked to play around with the p5 Riso library in preparation for the cumulative, collective assignment. You are free to make prints through the Service Bureau, where they have a Risographic Duplicator, at your own cost.
The SAIC Service Bureau has many resources related to risographic printing that may be helpful for getting a general familiarity with risographic duplication.
You will find copious examples related to p5 on this site under ATS2101, ATS3135, or UIC 151. There are linked videos, textbooks, and more. YouTube is an excellent resource.
You can start from this example sketch. It includes some files that we need in order to separate out color layers.
The p5.riso library is one of those included files. On their website you will find loads of documentation related to producing, generating, and exporting images for Risographic duplication.