COP Lecture Series: Print Culture and Distribution: Part 1

The "age of print" began in 1450. This term comes from media theorist, Marshall Mcluhan. During this time what was known as the beaux-arts were the only subjects taught at art schools. This included painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry, and was very exclusive to men.

1780 - 1832
During these years the industrial revolution took place (1760-1840).
Machines of mass production were developed.
- culture created out of class systems.
- coming together to create new forms of art.

John Martin (1820), Belshazzar's Feast
This piece of work was produced to be used as a propaganda campaign, whereby people had to pay to view the artwork. The money made from this was used for prints and engravings. As a result, careers were made from this as reproducers, making money from other artist's work, showing how anyone can become an artist.

Mass Image Culture
Matthew Arnold (1867), 'Culture and Anarchy'.
In this publication, Arnold aims to define culture as:
- 'the best that has been thought and said in the world',
- the study of perfection,
- attained through disinterested reading, writing and thinking,
- the pursuit of culture,
- seeks to 'minister the diseased spirit of our time'.

Working class culture
- refers to the snobbishness between classes, the attempt to keep the working class 'in their place'.
- political prejudices.

Leavisism
F.R. Leavis and Q.D. Leavis.
Believed that the 20th Century sees a cultural decline:
- "culture has always been in minority keeping"
- "the minority, who had hitherto set the standard of taste without any serious challenge have experienced a collapse of authority".
For example, 19th Century Penny Dreadful was a book produced to be affordable for the working class.

Schools of design were considered as production lines of industrial capitalism during this time. The first opened in London and aimed to teach design skills. The arguments between the culture of design vs. the culture can be traced back to this point in time, relating to the snobbishness of fine art students that can be seen today.

Walter Benjamin (1936), The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction
This suggests that the technological reproduction of art removes what is known as 'the aura of art'. This includes elements such as, creativity, eternal value, tradition, authority and authenticity. The recycling of images, such as the Mona Lisa, threatens this aura of art and it's meaning, where new machines of industry can be used as an attack on traditional print culture.
For example, the Illustrated London News meant that people no longer had to go to galleries to view art. This shows a democratisation of visual culture in that anyone could become a visual communicator.

Print Capitalism (1842)
Print capitalism concerns images made for the sole purpose of profit. This can be seen to replace culture with popular culture.
(William Morris (1877), The Lesser Arts)
Morris' work emerged from this idea of print capitalism. He referred to subjects such as graphic design, illustration and animation as 'the lesser arts'. His anti-capitalist approach meant that he was against reducing creatives to labourers, which is why the main focus of his work is nature rather than industry - the idea of the mechanical vs. the intellectual.

In design today, a return to the auratic or small collective methods of production can be seen. For example, letterpress, which suggests a return to the handmade as opposed to digital methods of production.