We, the dissident

by Chloe Parkinson
MADA 2023
COL3002 Survival

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Process



Once I had established how I would be responding to the survival brief, and what my focus area would be, I got right into creating it. My project had a particularly fast turn-around compared to some of my classmates, given that I had an alloted week where I had access to the screenprinting facilites. This meant I had to be quick in my designs, and not dwell on them (which is something that I am generally prone to - so a good excercise overall in sticking with your gut and not overthinking things).

First off, I sifted through all of my research in order to decide on what motifs and messages I would want to show through my designs. In terms of messages, I implemented two phrases that I had personally found quite punchy and meaningful that already existed within the anti-rave protest movement. The first one was ‘This Machine Kills Fascism’. I felt that this vibrant use of wording was very likely to draw people in, and it references how music connects people together to fight against oppressors and anyone who tries to tell someone else how to live their life. The second was ‘Free Party Is Not A Crime’, a more literal, but potentially less controversial, use of words. For my third design, I used the phrase ‘Save the Rave’, which I had not seen elsewhere in my research but could easily be a part of the movement. Just a note - when I was originally planning what the scope of this assignment might look like, I had planned to print three distinct designs. I did create three designs, but ran out of time at Lottozero to prepare a screen to print the final design. So it is not really referenced across the rest of the website given it was not a part of my final outcome.

The next step was to connect some imagery to these phrases. 
For design 1, I illustrated a scene where a stereo/boombox is exploding with the ‘This Machine Kills Fascism’ message. The text was hand-lettered by me. Little decorations, like musical notes, surround the letters. Off to one side of the boombox is a dead eagle. This was probably a bit on the nose, as that bird is a known symbol of fascism, but is nonetheless representation of what this protest movement is ultimately fighting.
For design 2, I was inspired by the majority of protest posters that are made by the average person, rather than someone with a background in art or design. These are usually just simple and handwritten, urgent in what they are demanding. So, again, I used hand-lettering to make this design, but without all the frills of the first one. One extra detail I did include was little eyes over the counters of the letters - referencing the surveillance element of the law. 

With my designs finalised, I was ready to begin the process of printing. The rest of this page will show in depth how I went about doing this, and what I learnt as I went along.

Step 1. Printing off the Acetates


I visited Eliograf, a print shop in Prato, to print off my completed designs onto A3 transparent sheets. Before doing this, I had to export each layer seperately, and in black and white (as is required for the next step of the process). So with my four sheets in hand - two layers for each design - I headed off to Lottozero.

Step 2. Preparing and Exposing the Screens


When I arrived at Lottozero on my first day, Federica had kindly begun preparing my first two screens. The emulsion had already been spread across both sides of this screens and left to dry for a few hours in a dark room with good air circulation.

This left me able to immediately begin the process of exposing the screens. On the flat side of each screen, I taped the acetate (flipped so that it would print correctly). The screens were then left in a light box for 5 minutes. By exposing the screens to the light, the parts of my acetate sheet that were not black hardened the emulsion underneath. 

This was all a bit daunting at first, and I was very nervous about making a mistake that would potentially waste hours of mine and Federica’s time. Luckily, it all went smoothly and each time I had to do it again it got infinitely easier.

Step 3. Rinsing and Drying the Screens



Now with my screens appropriately exposed, I rinsed off the remaining emulsion using a pressure washer. The parts that had not been exposed - my design - rinsed off with a bit of time and force. Once done when I held the screen up to the light I could clearly see where my design was.

The screen required a decent amount of drying before I could use it to print. Really, this part was the most time consuming bit of the whole process - needing to regularly rinse and dry the screen took up more time than anything else.



Step 4. Printing


Once dry, I placed the screens flat side down on the tshirts and A3 poster paper. I spooned some ink onto the top of the screen, and used a squeegee to drag the ink to the bottom of the screen. By doing this, the ink passes through the bare parts of the screen that were stamped out during the exposing process, and leaves the design on the paper/fabric.

Typically I would pass the squeegeee over the design at least twice, depending on if I was printing on paper or fabric. This was the hardest part to get a hang of, resulting in a lot of posters that were too inky, and some too sparse.

It was also difficult to ensure the alignment was even. I learnt to embrace this, as there was no way I could get it perfect every time, and often the misalignment was visually interesting and added some pizzazz. 

Step 5. Drying


Drying did not really involve any effort from me. I would just leave them on the rack for as long as possible and avoid anything touching the wet ink. Not much else to say about that.

Step 6. Cleaning the Screens


Once I decided I had enough copies of my first two screens, I need to rinse all of the emulsion off completely so that I could re-expose the screen with the next layers. This required me to use a chemical/water combination that ‘melted’ the emulsion off the screens.