Alex Russell | Printmaking With Code

Alex Russell works with creative coding, drawing, painting, collage, mono-printing, and photography to make original giclée prints. He produces large image libraries, mainly working by hand, then writes code (computer programming) that builds unique artworks from the scanned images. Each run of the code results in a one-off print, only possible with the combination of digital printing and the generative capabilities of programming.

Alex’s work explores concepts of non-repeating, infinite pattern; blurring the boundaries between the analogue and the digital. His code mixes traditional compositional methods (from art and design) with complex systems theory (from science and maths) to build intricate, highly-detailed prints on museum-quality paper with archival inks. Custom sizes and substrates are available to commission.

Speaking about what got him started with print, Alex says: “At school, my art teacher was a printmaker. He was incredibly supportive of kids who were interested in print and got me into screen-printing. I became a printed textiles designer and lecturer for a long time.” At the same time, Alex started to experiment with using code to create images on a long-forgotten home computer called an Oric 1.

Whilst working with textiles, Alex became fascinated with finding ways to use digital printing that would not be possible with other printing technologies. He was intrigued by the idea that the image data a digital printer receives can change all the time. He also became increasingly interested in coding and generative processes, realising that they offered a way to create one-off images that could take advantage of the possibility for each print to be different. The combination allows Alex to draw on the extraordinarily rich tradition of printing and take it somewhere new and unique. As he puts it; “I’m a digital printer who loves working by hand. I feel the same excitement when I see a generative print emerge as the first time I lifted the screen off a print.”

Alex studied textile design at Manchester Poly/MMU, where he went on to be programme leader of MA Fashion and Textiles and BA Textile Design for Fashion. His book The Fundamentals of Printed Textiles Design is in its 2nd edition and has been translated into French and Spanish. As a freelance designer, he has worked for an international client list and features widely in books about print and pattern.

He now lives and works as a full-time artist and creative coder in Manchester (UK). In between living and working, he rides a bicycle and plays the keyboards.

Alex is inspired by:
Things that look like nothing he’s ever seen before.
Things that look like everything he’s ever seen before.
Things he wishes he’d thought of.
Things that happen randomly, by mistake and at the edges of things.
Connecting new things together.
Opposite things.
Wanting to understand why things that look amazing look amazing.
Trying to work out how to make good work.
Things that happen because of the limitations of technology.
Things that happen because of the possibilities of technology.

@alexrussell_art
www.alexrussell.com

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