Sweden

Sweden. . Stockholm. 5/26/83. Jordi Arko is one of the printmaking teachers for the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, the prestigious school for Sweden's artists. The videotape recording shows views of the printmaking facilities for intaglio and lithography. Items of special interest are the original mezzotint rocker arm bought in 1912 (and still in use) and the carbon paper photo-etching project of one student, as well as the offset press. Jordi expresses particular interest in the possibilities of a monoprint / lithographic process enabled by the offset press. He also shows the safety features of the acid etching room.
The socialist governments of some countries allows artists their fair share of the resources of a country's worth. The most immediate and obvious advantage is to be found in its educational programming for young artists. 13:00 Min. SA830526

Sweden. . Stockholm. 5/26/83. Ingvar Hurtig teaches screen printing for the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, but a few years before this recording was made, he forced the closure of the screen-printing program because of the health hazards. Thus he was able to design and see through the construction of a model screen-printery, or screen print facility - where the atmosphere is scrubbed, its warmth exchanged, and not one ring makes it back.
The health hazards of printmaking are a concern worldwide, and now the students of printmaking can easily incorporate this into their educational experience as each problem is solved and its solution is learned. 8:00 Min. SA830527

Sweden. . Stockholm. 5/26/83. Stefano Becarri has directed the Grafiska Salskapets Verkstad for many years. In this videotape recording he gives a quick tour, and demonstrates an invention which will delight anyone who has observed the difficulty of handling large-sized inking rollers used in surface and Stefano Becarri planographic printing.
Printmaking workshops all begin to look the same but there's always some unusual, atypical practice or innovation available in every one. 5:00 Min. SA830528

Sweden. . Goteberg. 6/3/83. Svenrobert Lundquist travels more widely than most Swedish artists, and he is a producing studio artist and writer (Printnews). He produces his prints at Molndal, a suburb of Goteberg. He writes articles on printmaking for international publications, helped by his experience with the variety of artists' means for accomplishing their tasks. In this videotape he guides "the Canadian" (Bill Ritchie) around a huge collective studio (400 members), and then shows some of the equipment at the smaller collective at Molndal.
Artists' collectives prove to be almost the only means by which artists can accomplish technically complex artworks projects, and sometimes the only way artists can reach agreement on the collective mission is to suspend one's own aesthetic ideology. 11:00 Min. SA830603

Sweden. . Malmo. 6/5/83. A highlight of the trip, the only real example of artistic effort in computer graphics which respects the history and tradition of art and mechanistic imaging. Charlot and Sture Johannesson discuss their plans and show what they have accomplished on the day their first pop-spread is published in the Sunday paper: David Bowie!
In a term paper by 13-year old Janer Ritchie, the relation between computer graphics and weaving was noted. In at least one part of the world, a weaver traded her tapestry for a used personal computer, and her husband abandoned graphics. (Note: Publication by Weimarck. T. Charlot & Sture Johannesson: Digital Theater) Their studio may be an example of things to come. 17:00 Min. SA830605

Sweden. . Malmo. 6/5/83. This recording is a continuation from the previous introduction to The Digital Theater, and in this portion Sture Johannesson gives the Ritchie World Travelers some more demonstrations of the Digital Theater's work. The color hard copy printers, the video recorders, and his demonstration routine are shown. He tells about Leonardo DaVinci's "Mind Organ" idea from A.D. 1500, and how Digital Theater is working toward realizing DaVinci's vision.
Some ideas of 400 years' age are the basis for seemingly brand-new work! Resuscitation requires creativity, an element that is hard to find in government-supported, regimented institutions. If creativity is found in such places, it's usually at great costs, and is done more cheaply and faster by non-government, or non-social efforts. 15:00 Min. SA830606