GEMINILOGGBOOKOBERDADAISTICUS

Scanner art

Last summer, after I had installed the newest linux version of the flavour I've settled with, my scanner stopped working and I found no workaround. A few days ago I made a new vigorous effort. It wasn't obvious and took a full afternoon of searching for arcane issues people have had some ten years ago, before things gradually began to fall in place. Finally the scanner was recognised, then after a few more tweaks I actually got it working. Although half the time it refuses to do anything, but that's just how it behaves. The solution is to turn it off and wait till the next day before trying again. Another solution would be to throw it away and buy a new one. But to dispense of clunky electronics I would need a car, which means taking a taxi or asking some friend to drive me. So I've kept the scanner since I bought it with my first computer in 2002. The brand is notorious for their planned obsolesence through software updates and other mischiefs. Actually mine is also a printer, but that part is even more delicate to get running, not to mention the price of ink cartdridges. I still don't have a camera, so if I want to share anything visual it will have to go through the scanner.

In the future you will own nothing and be happy.

As long as things can be done by borrowing or sharing equipment, or by various kinds of collaborations, ownership isn't strictly necessary. In my work as a visual artist I need to show my presence with pictures of my projects from time to time. In my scannerless and cameraless period of the last year, I've relied on a friend and a mail art recipient to document a few things (nine photos in all). The mail art in question found its way into a video that will be included in a big group exhibition in September, which is at once prestigious and inclusive; they admit autodidacts like me, but as always there are an order of magnitude more proposals than there are accepted works. October last year I had a month's stay in Edvard Munch's studio where I worked almost daily with prints: a lot of linoleum prints, a few big wood cuts, several dry-points, and some collagraphs, but no etchings this time. Now with the scanner operable again I'm finally able to share an example.

More images will find their way to my official homepage or pixelfed.

When I had just bought the scanner, I used it to create experimental glitch images by moving around objects on the scanning surface while it was scanning. You have to move the objects slowly and scan with a sufficiently low resolution for the scan line to progress smoothly, otherwise the effect will be even more glitchy and jagged. One of my most interesting scanner images shows a bunch of twisting paint brushes with a brush in both ends (they surely weren't like that when I first got them). But I think the motion also desynchronises the red, green and blue components which can create interesting coloristic effects.

One of these recorders, the straight one, I believe, features on my latest album. Thanks to those of you who bought it!