Image -> Mode -> Bitmap

Image > Mode > Bitmap & CMYK contains a selection of work that document a decade-long obsession with the printed pixel and includes a wide array of print media, from woodblock and screen print to laser engraving and 3D relief prints. Custom looping algorithms and corrupted data files are utilized to capture chance, failure, and the loss of information that occurs when translating images between digital and traditional printmaking. While each work uses digital imagery as a starting point (the title of the show is the Photoshop command for switching between color modes), the final work is laboriously and inexorably printed by hand.

The large woodblock print installation (pictured at the top) is made by cutting  sheets of plywood into hundreds of tiny blocks, sorting these blocks into a fluorescent light grid, inking their surface with brayers, and pushing them through an etching press to record their mark on paper. This process is repeated over and over again and the act of printing starts to mirror the algorithms that generated the work to begin with, favoring process and accident over outcome and intention.

Noah Matteucci currently works as the Fine Arts Technician at WSU Vancouver.