Project 12: Collatype collage prints - Part 3 - 'Brainbow'

Stimulated by a MOOC (Massive online open access course) entitled "What is a mind?" run by the University of Capetown and delivered by the chair of neuropsychology Professor Mark Solms (1), I became interested in the philosophical questions surrounding the difference between the brain and the mind. One question posed during the course was whether we had encountered a work of art that effectively illustrated the experience of having a mind. Many students responded with illustrations of the brain with various additions such as flashes of light or colours or light bulbs or cogs. I didn't feel that these really illustrated the experience of having a mind but more the cultural concept of how the mind comes from the matter of the brain. In some ways, all works of art illustrate the experience of having a mind as having a mind allows us to make decisions. Decision making (even the decision to leave things to chance) is essential to the creation of any work of art. 

Neuropsychology is an interesting branch of science because it attempts to link the physical structure and functional processes of the brain with human behaviour, cognition, psychology and emotions.(2)

Following on from this course, I looked at some illustrated books which encompass our ways of imaging and illustrating the brain itself and the development of cultural notions about the brain over the years in which it has been studied(3),(4). There is a mismatch somehow in our conception of the brain as it appears in reality as a greyish, nondescript, gelatinous yet convoluted organ and our perception of the mind and the soul. This is a gap which it isn't really possible to bridge in a simplistic and reductive scientific way at this point in time. 

The books which I read (3), (4) contained some outstanding illustrations. Some of the most arresting images came from the so-called 'brainbow mouse'. The images were of photomicrographs of the brains of these mice. The images are beautiful with an array of luminous and almost fluorescent colours. However, the way in which the images are produced makes me very uncomfortable. These laboratory mice were bred specifically to enable mapping of the synapses and organisation of their nervous systems. Initially, cells were made fluorescent by inserting jellyfish genes. Eventually the brainbow mice were bred. Their cells can be distinguished from each other more easily than normal mice because each cell produces different coloured proteins because of genetic manipulations. After photographing microscopic sections of the brain (obviously after killing the brainbow mice and slicing up their brains), the colours are enhanced digitally in order make the details easier to study. (3) The result is a stunningly beautiful image. 

I made a lot of sketches in my sketchbook inspired by various images in the books:

I then continued to look more closely in particular at the brainbow mouse images:

Sketchbook 'Brainbow' in water soluble markers

Sketchbook "Brainbow' using watercolour, permanent markers
and an acetate sheet

Monotype 'Brainbow' created using water soluble pens on a
sanded piece of perspex

I had read about the silk collagraph technique in my printmaking books (5) and (6) and I wanted to try it out. I had bought some cheap, fine synthetic fabric to substitute for silk organza so I constructed a plate. 

My first attempt at a silk collagraph plate

The plate was constructed by first adhering the fine fabric to some cardboard using black acrylic paint. After this was dry, I painted onto the fabric with acrylic paint of varying viscosities from very thin mixed with water to thick straight out of the time. I also painted some shapes using gesso and stuck on some shapes cut from foil tape for and extra smooth surface. 

I encountered a number of technical difficulties with this project: 

1. The fabric didn't adhere particularly well but I didn't want to apply any other glue because I was afraid that this would flood the grain of the fabric and stop it picking up ink
2. I created lots of small shapes which I wanted to print in bright vivid colours enclosed in a dark background which created a headache with inking and wiping and made me wipe the plate inadequately
3. I inadvertently picked up the wrong paper - I didn't notice until I put it in to soak. The paper was more like blotting paper than the Somerset printmaking paper I had mistaken it for. 

The results were not impressive:

First attempt at a silk collagraph. Underwiped and printed
on the incorrect type of paper

Ghost print from the same plate as above

Because there was too much ink on the plate it squeezed out when it was printed and went over the edges making marks all around the print. The only thing that was impressive to be was just how bright the colours were and how clean it was possible to wipe the smooth foil shapes. 

On the third pass through the press there was still ink present on the plate. I worked into this print while the paper was still wet using intense blocks in a last ditch attempt to salvage something from this experiment. However, it was clear that it would be necessary to find another way of producing the image I wanted:

Ghost print and inktense

After a conversation with a fellow student on social media, I decided I would try using two plates. One plate primarily for blocks of colour and another with textural elements. I first attached a sheet of 'sand paper' which is textured paper for pastel drawings onto the hardboard base. I then further constructed the textural plate using thread and by drawing with PVA from the nozzle of the PVA bottle. After these elements had dried, I flooded the enclosed shapes at the bottom of the plate with more PVA to make them easier to wipe. I coated the plate with shellac and acrylic lacquer. 

Plate constructed using sandpaper, sewing thread and PVA

For the colour plate, I placed a stencil in roughly the same shape as the enclosed elements of the textured plate on the hardboard base and then I spread gesso over the plate leaving the area covered by the paper stencil without gesso. I also scraped lines into the gesso using a chopstick. Once the gesso was dry, I roughened the surface of the un-gessoed area using sandpaper and other tools in an attempt to make this area hold more ink. 

Plate made using gesso, a stencil and a chopstick

I realised that printing these two on the same paper would be a challenge because I would need to work quickly. Paper expands when wet and shrinks as it dries and so any delay could result in a registration issue. I decided that I would ink both plates and have them ready to go and then rapidly print the colour one followed by overprinting with the textural one The plates were also thicker than the cardboard plates I'd used so far. I overcame this by making a mat board jig which served a dual purpose of aiding registration and reducing the step over which the rollers would have to travel. 

I used a number of different brightly coloured inks "alla poupee" on the flatter colour plate and I used only dark indigo ink on the textured plate. I experimented with different ways of inking and wiping as follows:

Textural plate printed alone in indigo using intaglio inking technique

Two plate print using intaglio inking (alla poupee on the coloured plate) The edges are not sufficiently wiped.

Two plate print. Colour plate inked 'alla poupee' and intaglio wiped. Textured plate inked using both
intaglio technique and a relief rollup

Two plate print using a ghost print of the colour plate as above and a second relief rollover of the
textured plate. 

One think that I noticed was that the the pastel 'sandpaper' didn't hold as much ink as I had expected so the background was lighter than I expected. Maybe I had over lacquered the surface and made it too smooth for maybe the texture of the pastel paper wasn't pronounced enough. However, the lighter than expected background had the benefit of allowing the colours from the other plate to show through clearly. 

It is very interesting to note how much difference can be made to prints from the same plates by just altering the way that ink is applied and wiped. I was quite pleased with the results of this two plate technique and it is something I would like to try again moving forwards. 

Looking at the print. It is really purely abstract with a starting point of the illustration. It doesn't attempt to say anything about the unfortunate mice nor indeed about neuropsychology.

What I learnt:

• Silk collagraph isn't easy - I either need to do lots of practice or go on a course in added to be able to use this tool effectively
• Trying to apply lots of colours to small shapes and wipe them without muddying them is impractical
• foil wipes very clean if you want a bright white area on the print.
• It is important to check you are using the right paper!!
• Two plate collagraphs can allow the use of multiple colours with less risk of excessive mixing. 
• Having the two plates ready and inked before you start printing is a good way to overcome possible registration issue caused by paper shrinkage (although printing wet on wet coat result in colour mixing it doesn't seem to have been a major problem in this project)

References:

(1) https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/what-is-a-mind
(2) https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/neuropsychology
(3) Kwint, M. and Wingate, R. (2012). Brains : The Mind as Matter. London: Wellcome Collection.
(4) Schoonover, C. (2010). Portraits of the mind: Visualising the brain from antiquity to the 21st century. New York: Abrams.
(5) Stoltenberg, D. and MacKenzie, R. (1975). Collagraph printmaking. Worcester, Mass: Davis Publications.
(6) Fick, B. and Grabowski, B. (2016). Printmaking. A complete guide to materials & process. Rev. ed. London: Laurence King.