How can CMYK be enhanced or even be replaced by the power of the 4 elements?
The publication Wie kann CMYK durch die Kraft der 4 Elemente erweitert oder gar ersetzt werden? / How can CMYK be enhanced or even be replaced by the power of the 4 elements? was the outcome of a semester project of the experimental, analog printing seminar “4 Elements Printing” (winter semester 2021/22) as part of the ongoing research module Loose Library of Print at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle and was produced onsite at the university’s offset print shop. Marion Kliesch headed the course at the time.
The publication was created by the students Fanny Liebhardt, Greta Much, Hyelim Kim, Jasmin Zehe, Leonardo Alliata, Lioba Wachtel, Lore Elstermann, Louise Holtz, Luisa Kaiser, Melanie Hauffe and Nadine Härting, with support of the university’s printing press staff: Frank Just, Robert Marschall, Matthias Schwenke, Frank Robrecht and Philipp Hoffmann. It was set in HAL Timezone, published by HAL Typefaces. Printing ink was sponsored by Epple Druckfarben AG and Jänecke+Schneemann Druckfarben GmbH. Before printing, the printing plates were manipulated in different ways, for example, by exposure to water, fire, earth and sun; bathing exposed plates in a river for two weeks; or scratching the surface with screw drivers, rotary tools or sandpaper.
From the seminar’s instagram post:
FIRE, EARTH, WATER and LIGHT – comparable to an environmental disaster, the four elements break into the high standards of offset printing like forces of nature. This is because the machines and materials are all finely calibrated and calculated to ensure a uniform print image. Therefore, in offset printing, great care is usually taken to keep all environmental influences, such as temperature and humidity stable and to exclude the disturbing influence of light or foreign bodies like dust.
For our experiments, however, we virtually challenged the “catastrophe”: We deliberately used the power of the four elements. To do so, we initially started with analog experiments, with which we tried to narrow down the extent to which the modern printing process can withstand extreme conditions.
