My current research addresses the nexus of labour, praxis, power and knowledge in both the mines of Cornwall and the print shops of Germany in the early modern period. I investigate this issue from a formal standpoint and use my expertise and experience as a printmaker to pick apart the tangled threads; through performative printmaking re-enactments; acknowledging that which has been kept intentionally hidden in the histories of these industries.
My thesis starts from an understanding that “fixity” is not an inherent quality of the print plate, but rather a state achieved through an elaborate performance within the print room. What I make a case for in this thesis is that “multiformities”, in print, reveal the instances wherein this performance goes awry. I go on to argue that these multiformities constitute an aesthetics of resistance which trace the antagonisms between workers and owners in the print shop in the early modern period.
I explore the parallels between acts of wear in the mines of Cornwall and the print shops of Germany in the Early Modern period, through my practice as a printmaker, moving from mining heritage sites to the studio and allowing this bringing together of disparate seeming worlds to inform and challenge my research.
Thesis (working title) : The Mine and the Printmaker – Acts of Wear in practices of knowledge construction in the early modern period
Seminars:
11 December 2024
Sedition enacted in print
13 December 2023
Rock canons and the representation of perceptual phenomena
8 February 2022
Milk Skimmer: The transliteration of affect
10 November 2022
Pulling the print – discovering the truth of an inscription
3 February 2021
Reconsidering the print matrix as a co-conspirator in the production of knowledge
Publications:
Digging, Mining, Printing: The performance of land-scape
Available at: Transtechnology Research Reader | Transtechnology Research
karen.squire@plymouth.ac.uk
