reading Reed alt'd xerofusely

Last month, i got a generous envelope from Reed Altemus, he has long been active & engaged as a cultural worker operating on a few different fields of practice, but most notably he's been intensely involved in copyart & mailart -- and developed a wide body of work to show for it & i would also posit that he's somewhat of a historian, preserving choice examples of xerography and sharing them with others, of which i am very thankful, his Tonerworks blog is a wonderful archive & on top of that he's a frequent publisher of important works -- as i've said before on this blog, the Live Matter series is an exquisite experience of visutactile interaction.

There is a work that Reed did called "More Than 20 Genuine Certified Authentic Signatures!" inwhich a large thumbprint sequentially enlargens page by page, not only is it cool to see that progressive effect, but to notice how the print gradually changes is like a morphology of basic physical identity -- but, what really peels my banana is that it is the most beautiful fused toner i've ever seen in my life! A uniform dense matte black that almost seems three dimensional, also it's printed on Strathmore cotton paper so maybe that adds to the depthly texture -- Reed knows what he's doing onna photocopier & such technical mastery shines through in the finished end result.

Speaking of 3D, when i saw that blue page with the red shadows i flipp'd my lids, i broke out my 3D glasses & gave it a gander & it was the first time i've experienced 3D visual poetry! i gotta pretty good little collection of 3D glasses because i gotta pretty good little collection of 3D comics, but it's never entered my mind to try & do some 3D visual poetry -- if that wasn't enough, there was a strong heat wrinkle on the page (which often happens when one re-feeds the same sheet to get an overlay effect because the paper gets so hot), but the wrinkle totally fits with the composition & becomes an integral part of the page, a unique occurance which adds a very special touch to an already eyesum piece.

Soon, a special issue of KAIRAN magazine edited by Gianni Simone will come out which focuses on copyart, Reed has written an essay for that issue & here's an excerpt about the smear & stretch of copy motion:

"Copy motion, creating effects by moving the material during the scanning process, is another classical copy art technique. Techniques which are now considered standard by copy artists were probably discovered or invented through common unintentional mistakes which sometimes arise naturally in the process of using a copier. An original was accidentally nudged while it was being scanned by the copier. The resulting mistake, which looked like a smeared version of the original had taken on expressive qualities of dynamic motion. Someone is copying pages from a book and forgets to turn the page over to print on the backside of the page and suddenly there are two book pages copied one over the other, a metaphor for information overload. Another person casually sets the contents of her pockets on the glass of the copier while she looks for change and accidentally brushes the copy button- the resulting “copy” is an instant visual art study of personal effects. It’s no big leap to believing that these discoveries have happened time and again over the years, repeating themselves for each individual. The person who chooses to further develop these happy accidents is a potential copy-artist. "

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