Hacking the Digital Print: Alternative image capture and printmaking processes with a special section on 3D printing

1. Introduction

My son is a computer hacker but, as he likes to say, part of the “old school.” Those hackers were people who didn’t break into systems and steal personal information; rather, they were the ones who took things apart to see what made them work and then reassembled them into new and useful forms. We all know about digital prints—there is little challenge in getting a high-quality image out of a desktop printer these days. Cameras are getting nearly as good, and the combination means that technical proficiency, while necessary, no longer makes a difference. Instead, we need to take things apart, figure out how they work, and then ...