Programmed Paper (2022-present)

I made several prints using a combination of traditional letter press techniques and images constructed and printed on a cricut machine - a popular craft machine that allows you to draw, cut and fabricate various craft projects. Layering old and new mechanical printing and drawing methods, I visualize the layering of histories that remain metaphorical in the content of the work.

In paper engineering, folding and shaping paper is referred to as “programming” the paper – telling the paper what to do so it behaves in the way you want it to. We may usually associate such language with computers and digital devices and not with analog materials like paper, but in reality paper still plays a fundamental role in the way we interact with the online spaces we access via our phones or laptops whether as cardboard packaging delivering what we buy online to various documents, receipts or tickets still required as “hard” copies. This project, which is new and ongoing, focuses on various ways paper can be “programmed” from the production of folded surfaces to other objects like pop-ups and objects with various moving parts that animate with interaction. Content of these objects will make clear connections to today’s digital media environment inviting viewers to think about their relationship to paper and its continued and varied importance in society. The first step in this project combines various paper folding techniques to make microchip schematics 3D, augmenting their potentials as circuits.