Digital Applications for Color Relief Printmaking

Matthew Kluber (Art and Art History, Grinnell) and Grinnell student Ezra Edgerton collaborated on a summer project to make the specialized equipment of the art department, especially its CNC (Computer Numerical Control ) router, more broadly useful for teaching and learning at the College. The CNC router is a specialized tool that can created highly detailed physical objects from digital instructions generated or modified with software.

As part of this project, Kluber and Edgerton cut and printed eight multiple-block color relief prints, including the one pictured here, to gain experience with the processes involved. They then created user instructions and other information that will become not only a specific project in Kluber’s Print Media course but also assist instruction across the studio disciplines going forward.

Kluber is now adding to this work as a Digital Bridges Obermann Fellow at the University of Iowa, where is fellowship project involves building a digital database of studio art produced by Grinnell students.

Matthew Kluber was a participant in and presenter at the 2016 Digital Bridges Summer Institute. He is also the Digital Bridges Obermann Fellow for 2016-2017. This project was completed with support from a Digital Bridges summer grant supporting a Grinnell faculty-student pedagogical partnership between Kluber and Edgerton.