I decided to have two Metro Newspapers for the event I was planning. From a practical point of view this was so that if one 'went wrong' in the process of producing it, I still had a 'back up'. From the point of view of their installation, it seemed more engaging to allow more than one person to see a piece at once. Giving people a choice in papers also would give them a greater selection of articles to plant.
Originally I had had an idea about collaborating all of the green-themed pages from a number of Metros and creating a whole new paper based only on that which would refer directly to my ecologically minded cause.
However, I decided to leave the newspapers as they were to keep them as recognisable and as 'real' as possible. I also wanted to include all of the stories of war, the economy, murder etc. so that participants of the event couldselect which pieces of news they wanted to see buried away.
It seems poetic to let beautiful wildflowers grow from terribly dismal news articles.
Now that I had found and ordered the seed paper, I simply had to establish how to print the articles and pictures on to it in order to make it look like a regular Metro newspaper.
Having had a rather stressful meeting with a print-making tutor in College, I was advised to go elsewhere for advice. The reason my meeting with the print-making tutor was so stressful was because I am stubborn and when someone tells me my idea is great, but impossible, I get quite annoyed. Nothing is impossible, just more challenging to resolve... he clearly didn't like being challenged like I do!
To cut a long story short, the simple fact is that it would have been far too difficult to silk-screen the newspapers and then match the correct colours for each and every article and advert inside. It would have been possible, but it would have taken far longer than I could wait.
Also, the ink used in silk screening is incredibly thick and hard once dry, which means that the little wildflower seeds would not be able to grow if the sheets of paper were covered up with layers of plastic-like material.
I was really deflated. I always have to come up with a Plan B as my Plan A's never pan out the way I see them in my head. The only other way that I could think of printing my papers was using a large digital printer. I would have to digitalise the Metros (probably scan the pages and Photomerge them together on Photoshop) or photograph each page with a good quality camera and upload the images to the printers that way. I just needed to get the Metros I was holding in my hand into a computer somehow so that when it was printed again, it would look as close to the original as possible.
I made my way to the digital printing suite in College to find it closed. The university only opens the printing room 3 days a week (don't get me started on how ridiculous it is for an art school to not have access to these basic facilities any time of the week...) and I would have to come back tomorrow.
Having been so elated yesterday and having spent £150 on seed-paper (!) it never occurred to me that it might not be possible to print on it.
The good news was that my paper was sitting waiting for me when I got home. It was beautiful - creamy and thick with the seeds clearly embedded right into thin layers. It felt really tactile too - I could just see people holding the Metro papers and suddenly feeling how lumpy the paper is as they feel the seeds. It's just what I had in mind.
I would have to go back into college tomorrow, paper in hand, and pray that the printers will allow me to use my own paper... looking at it again, it is awfully thick... I also hope the printers can cope with seeds springing out all over the place too...
Oh dear.
Let's not think about that until tomorrow.
Originally I had had an idea about collaborating all of the green-themed pages from a number of Metros and creating a whole new paper based only on that which would refer directly to my ecologically minded cause.
However, I decided to leave the newspapers as they were to keep them as recognisable and as 'real' as possible. I also wanted to include all of the stories of war, the economy, murder etc. so that participants of the event couldselect which pieces of news they wanted to see buried away.
It seems poetic to let beautiful wildflowers grow from terribly dismal news articles.
Now that I had found and ordered the seed paper, I simply had to establish how to print the articles and pictures on to it in order to make it look like a regular Metro newspaper.
Having had a rather stressful meeting with a print-making tutor in College, I was advised to go elsewhere for advice. The reason my meeting with the print-making tutor was so stressful was because I am stubborn and when someone tells me my idea is great, but impossible, I get quite annoyed. Nothing is impossible, just more challenging to resolve... he clearly didn't like being challenged like I do!
To cut a long story short, the simple fact is that it would have been far too difficult to silk-screen the newspapers and then match the correct colours for each and every article and advert inside. It would have been possible, but it would have taken far longer than I could wait.
Also, the ink used in silk screening is incredibly thick and hard once dry, which means that the little wildflower seeds would not be able to grow if the sheets of paper were covered up with layers of plastic-like material.
I was really deflated. I always have to come up with a Plan B as my Plan A's never pan out the way I see them in my head. The only other way that I could think of printing my papers was using a large digital printer. I would have to digitalise the Metros (probably scan the pages and Photomerge them together on Photoshop) or photograph each page with a good quality camera and upload the images to the printers that way. I just needed to get the Metros I was holding in my hand into a computer somehow so that when it was printed again, it would look as close to the original as possible.
I made my way to the digital printing suite in College to find it closed. The university only opens the printing room 3 days a week (don't get me started on how ridiculous it is for an art school to not have access to these basic facilities any time of the week...) and I would have to come back tomorrow.
Having been so elated yesterday and having spent £150 on seed-paper (!) it never occurred to me that it might not be possible to print on it.
The good news was that my paper was sitting waiting for me when I got home. It was beautiful - creamy and thick with the seeds clearly embedded right into thin layers. It felt really tactile too - I could just see people holding the Metro papers and suddenly feeling how lumpy the paper is as they feel the seeds. It's just what I had in mind.
I would have to go back into college tomorrow, paper in hand, and pray that the printers will allow me to use my own paper... looking at it again, it is awfully thick... I also hope the printers can cope with seeds springing out all over the place too...
Oh dear.
Let's not think about that until tomorrow.
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