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Artist as archivist

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Artist as archivist

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Content  ARTIST AS ARCHIVIST 
 
 
 
 
by 
 
Matthew Brendan Cunningham 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Professional Project Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree 
MASTER OF ARTS 
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM) 
 
May 2009 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright 2009 Matthew Brendan Cunningham 
 
 
ii 
Table of Contents 
 
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….iii 
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..1 
Artist as Archivist……………………………………………………………………………..2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
iii 
Abstract 
 
Throughout time, works of art have been used to gain historical understand the 
society in which it was created. But now, there is a growing trend for artists to use 
discarded materials as their medium, becoming archivist of discarded and 
antiquated technologies.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
2 
Introduction 
 
The creation of new technologies are changing the way we do everything from how 
we get our news, enjoy our movies and music to how we enjoy the world. The 
growing mass of discarded technologies is benefiting an unlikely group, artists. 
Independent arts journalist, Matt Cunningham has this report. 
 
 
 
3 
Artist as Archivist 
Description of Images Text

(Montage of images at each studio)
(Shots of the equipment each of these 
artists use in their studios)
CUNNINGHAM: Technology is being updated 
at an increasingly rapid pace. Upgrading to 
faster more powerful computers has led to a 
reduction of the average life span of the pc 
to less than five years. What was cutting 
edge, just a few years ago, is being tossed 
out in the name of modernization and 
increased productivity.
This move has created a stockpile of 
antiquated technologies whose days has 
come and gone. And artists are reaping the 
rewards. 
(Montage of clips from the artists
profiled in piece)
JALOPY “Mostly I build stuff, stuff of my 
dreams. /// And I build it mostly out of 
discards.” 
LERNER “With the rise of these digital 
technologies, you see so many 
filmmakers turning to the hand
processed, the handmade that’s very 
artisanal or low tech or using these old 
technologies.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4 
 
NIFFENEGGER “We don’t do it out of a 
sense of responsibility; we do it because 
we think it’s cool.”
(Book and Paper students making
paper)

CUNNINGHAM: Audrey Niffenegger, Jesse 
Lerner and an artist who works under the 
name Mr. Jalopy are among a movement of 
artists who are collecting and using 
materials that others have long regarded as 
worthless. 
(Students at the Columbia College
Center for Book and Paper Arts making
paper)

CUNNINGHAM: These students are 
performing the centuries‐old process of 
making paper. They’re all graduate students 
in “Book and Paper Arts” at Columbia 
College Chicago. Nowadays, the facilities 
may be more elaborate, but the actual 
procedure to make paper remains the same: 
pulp, natural fibers and lots and lots of 
water. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
5 
 
(Audrey Niffenegger walking in the 
press room, passing through then 
transitioning to the drawers of wood,
metal type, woodcuts and the art) 
CUNNINGHAM: The Book and Paper Center 
harkens to the past. This workshop is full of 
old industrial letterpresses and weathered  
cabinets filled with elaborate woodcuts, 
various fonts of wood and lead type sorted 
by size. Once used in the newspaper and 
publishing industries, these materials are 
now in the hands of budding artists wanting 
to learn this dying skill.  
Audrey Niffenegger is a book artist and 
teaches the tradition to these students. She 
creates one‐of‐a kind, limited‐edition 
bindings by setting the type and creating the 
paper it’s all printed on. She personally has 
salvaged several pieces of equipment from 
becoming additions to scrap heaps.  
(Niffenegger) NIFFENEGGER: “When I first started 
doing letterpress, it was dying. All the 
old guys that were doing it for a living 
were retiring and the equipment was 
being junked. And so when I was forming 
my studio, we would go buy type and 
equipment from these guys.” 

 

 
 
 
6 
 
(images of presses in the studio) CUNNINGHAM: Niffenegger and a colleague 
would visit pressmen around Chicago, 
looking to purchase some of the massive 
machines like the old Vander Cook printing 
presses that industry was replacing with 
more modern versions.
(images of presses in the studio) NIFFENEGGER: “We bought it back in 
1989 from a guy named Jack Frank who 
had a gigantic warehouse in Pilsen. Four 
floors of every kind of obsolete 
equipment.  Pam and I would poke 
around trying to find a Vander Cook, 
which is what this is. We ended up with 
this press. It’s a very large Vander Cook.
That guy, Jack Frank was in the business 
of selling presses. And he thought we 
were very funny. These young girls 
wanting to buy these large pieces of 
defunct metal. But as it became 
outmoded, we were the only ones who 
wanted them. Us and other artists. And 
these days they are hard to get. Jack is 
not in business anymore and all the 
presses got sent to Mexico or melted 
down.” 
(Footage of letter press type in the
opened drawers)
CUNNINGHAM: The past and the present 
fascinate Niffenegger. She is the author of

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
7 
 
numerous books, including “Time Traveler’s 
Wife” and her new book, “Her Faithful 
Symmetry.” Her art as well as her writings 
explore the old and new.  
These wood and lead type specimens are 
mementos of the past, giving us a peak into 
an exotic world before laser and inkjet 
printers. And with newspapers and 
magazines reducing the size of their print 
editions or becoming extinct, there is less 
commercial need for the remaining 
machines.  
(possibly excerpt of a National
Geographic special)
NIFFENEGGER: “If this were a National 
Geographic Nature Special, we would be 
some super specialized insect which has 
to do this thing. Which in our case is find 
some crazy weird stuff and do something 
with it. And with the printing stuff, we 
could never have had it when it was new.
It was expensive. It was for industry.
And if we wanted it, we would have to 
work for it.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
8 
 
(Niffenegger Continued) But once it was abandoned by industry 
and was cheap, everyone thought, oh 
yeah, look at that, we can have that. And 
so like some scavenger beetle, we came 
in and took over because it had been 
abandoned by more moneymaking 
ventures. 
(Shots of the interior of filmmaker
Jesse Lerner’s studio in Echo Park. He
is mixing chemicals to process film.)
CUNNINGHAM: The cheap price tag on these 
discarded technologies is also a factor for 
filmmaker Jesse Lerner. 
(Transition to The equipment and
materials he uses to make his films)

Living in the shadow of the Hollywood sign, 
Lerner has benefited from the film 
industry’s evolution from film to a digital 
format. He has collected film‐editing 
equipment and archival footage for little to 
no expense. Machines that at one time were 
on the cutting edge of technology in the 
motion picture business are being left on 
loading docks for disposal.
(Scenes from Jesse Lerner’s Film –
Magnavoz as an example of his work)

CUNNINGHAM: His productions are 
somewhere between documentary and 
experimental, mixing archival footage and 
reenactments that are made to look archival.  

 
 

 
 
 
 
9 
 
And his subject matter reflects the 
convergence of the past with the present.
His 2007 film, “Magnavoz,” tells the story of 
the Mexican Revolution. While addressing 
modern ideas of political apathy, its themes 
are easily translatable to American politics.
And the antiquated equipment in his studio 
helps to achieve a seamless result. 
LERNER: “There’s no mistaking if you see 
a handprocessed black and white image; 
you’d never for a second think that was 
digital video. It looks so very different.
There’s something very inherent about 
the quality of the image that’s 
unmistakable.”  
(Various shots of Lerner in his Echo
Park Studio processing film over a
sink)

CUNNINGHAM: With current technologies, 
filmmakers can use computer programs to 
edit and add various effects – like the 
appearance of old, scratchy film on a new 
digital image.  Yet Lerner believes the 
viewer can still see the difference. 
 

 
 
10 
 
Lerner describes his films as avant‐garde, 
combining historic footage with
reenactments.  So he processes the film by 
hand, using optical printing and other 
devices to accomplish the desired outcome.
He believes the look of the film has much to 
do with the overall quality, as does the story 
itself. 
(More images of Magnavoz
highlighting the mix of new and
archival footage)
LERNER: “I am working with a lot of 
archival material. So if I shot some on 
digital video and mixed it with archival 
material shot on 16, or on 35, there is no 
way I would get a match. There would be 
this jump in image quality whenever I 
switch back and forth between those two 
different media. So, in the last few 
projects I have done, it’s been important 
to seamlessly integrate my own material 
with historic material. // I didn’t want it 
at all obvious where it was that we were 
transitioning between material from 
2006 and material from 1936. So I 
thought by shooting black and white and 
by doing these other antiquated 
processes, with the optical print and 
contact printer, I could get an aesthetic 
that is a better match for the authentic 
archival footage.” 

 

 
 
 
11 
 
(B-Roll of people working on
computer, using iPods and talking on
cellphones)
CUNNINGHAM: Are these two artists part of 
a trend to hold onto the past in the midst of 
a post‐modern digital age? Or is it merely a 
result of economics, allowing artists to buy 
antiquated but still usable equipment
(Internal shots of Mister Jalopy’s 
studio, showing the jars of screws, 
rows of bicycles, stacks of skate 
boards and his portable movie 
theater and iPod Deck IDENTIFY MR. 
Jalopy as a contributing editor of 
“Make” Magazine) 
(Jalopy)
JALOPY: “Cost is certainly a factor 
because you can pick this out of the trash 
or practically out of the trash at a garage 
sale. And once you get used to garage 
sale prices, it’s really difficult to buy 
anything anywhere close to retail. /// So 
what you are able to do is assemble this 
archive of materials for pennies.
(Internal shots of Mister Jalopy’s
studio, showing the jars of screws, rows
of bicycles, stacks of skate boards and

CUNNINGHAM: Mr. Jalopy, is a founding 
member of the Maker Movement.  Members 
create unique artistic pieces from seemingly 
useless materials.

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
12 
 
his portable movie theater and iPod
Deck IDENTIFY MR. Jalopy as a
contributing editor of Make Magazine)
In a world where high‐tech gadgetry is 
promoted as having the answers to many of 
society’s questions, low tech is gaining 
admiration. The Do‐It‐Yourself and Maker 
Movements have increased in popularity in 
the past few years, blending discarded 
materials and a craftiness with 
contemporary needs.
Jalopy’s workshop is filled with random 
objects from our collective past and is the 
pallet for his creations. He says people are 
pushing back, wanting to make more 
visceral, lifelong connections. 
(Jalopy) JALOPY: People are tired of being 
dictated to; of ‘this is how you have to use 
our products, download your music, 
watch our movies, watch our 
commercials, our FBI warnings.’ At some 
point you think, who made all these rules 
that I have to listen to? Why is it that I 
can’t order a new on/off switch for my 
television?
 

 

 
 
13 
 
(Jalopy continued) Who decided that I can’t buy replacement 
parts for my bicycle and why is this box 
glued shut so I can’t fix it? Why can’t I 
change the battery in my iPod? Why do 
we have to put up with this stuff? And 
there is this watershed moment where 
we are realizing we can break into this 
stuff.” 
B-Roll of Jalopy’s studio including jars
full of bolts and shelves full of
mechanical parts. Plus numerous skate
boards and images of his works)
CUNNINGHAM: He calls himself a tinkerer, 
envisioning unique creations, then bringing 
them to life using discarded objects. Some 
of his inventions include a portable drive‐in 
movie theater mounted on the back of an 
adult Schwinn tricycle, equipped with
surround sound and a 12‐foot screen.  
And what has been called the world’s largest 
iPod, which retrofits an old wood stereo 
cabinet to allow for digitizing of records and 
a place to store the files. A flat‐screen 
display allows for easier navigation through 
the catalogue. 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
14 
 
 
He chooses to work with these discarded 
items because he believes each piece has a 
spirit to them. 
(Show B-Roll of the shelves filled with
bottles, screws, stacks of skateboards,
books and other unique objects Mr.
Jalopy has collected)
JALOPY: “You can feel the soul in these 
objects. And then it is an extraordinary 
honor to be able to connect to all those 
souls; to build something new out of all 
these disparate pieces. People had no 
idea how they were going to live on them 
after they had given up on them. And you 
build something new that is a symbol 
with that combined soul. Its an 
incredible honor.//// When you think of 
the giant iPod I built, I wanted to digitize 
records. I used a Farnsworth Radio 
Cabinet, a beautiful art deco cabinet. But 
then there are all these other 
components assembled into that: kitchen 
knobs, a knob off of a nut dish, new 
technology, old technology. And the 
kitchen knob is no longer a kitchen knob; 
it doesn’t know it’s a kitchen knob. The 
nut dish doesn’t know. The Farnsworth 
radio cabinet still knows it’s a it’s still a 
cabinet, still emitting sound. So there are 
these layers of materials that are coming 
together. /// And I am really happy that 
and it does exactly what I want it to do.
And when it breaks, I know what’s 
broken because I know how it works. I 
know its guts. It’s a machine you can’t 
buy anywhere. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
15 
 
(Images of wall paintings in Lascaux
France and Vermeer’s work

CUNNINGHAM: Artists capture their 
surroundings by providing the culture of a 
specific time, giving insight into daily life.
Paintings on cave walls explain how our 
ancestors hunted for food. Historians have 
used the paintings of 17th Century Dutch 
artist Johannes Vermeer as a way to 
understand early globalization through the 
clothes worn and the food on the tables.  
Much has been written on the idea of art‐as‐
historian, but this trend of artist‐as – 
archivist by possessing actual materials may 
be something of a new role. 
(Show Holly Jerger cleaning up and the
materials used in the class)
Holly Jerger is the program director at the 
Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.  
As I met up with her on a Saturday 
afternoon, she was cleaning up from a 
children’s art class. 
 

 

 
 
 
16 
 
(Show Holly Jerger cleaning up and the
materials used in the class)
Besides tirelessly running programs at the 
museum, she is an artist who also uses old 
letterpresses. Jerger says working with 
these technologies has given her an 
appreciation of the equipment and the 
people who originally worked with it.  
(32:28 – 33:50) 
(Images of the letter presses she uses)
JERGER: “It’s taught me respect for the 
people who invented it in the first place.
These machines are very intelligently 
made and now that they are functioning 
in the “fine art” realm but these were all 
made for commercial purposes so 
efficiency was so important. ///Think 
about how something was made 100 – 
150 years ago and just the thought and
economy that was used in its design.  
And now, even though we may have 
much broader resources available to us, 
still the best things are those that are 
economic. In that I mean the eloquence of 
the ideas and the functions that they 
have. It continually reschools and 
reorients us into that mindset versus “My 
computer can do all this and just do 
because you can do.” This is all about 
doing because it is well thought out, 
planned. It can give you a specific result 
in the end. “ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
17 
 
(Shots of Jerger using the equipment) CUNNINGHAM: None of these artists are 
technophobes.  Jerger believes they’re 
actually pushing the limits of these old 
machines by incorporating modern 
technologies to give them a new life.
(31:13 – 32:08) 
(Jerger)
JERGER: “It’s interesting as new artforms 
and techniques develop that being able 
to combine them in or maybe when 
you’re using the letterpress now, after all 
of us for so many years have been like 
selecting fonts on our computers; and to 
go back and select your font and hand set 
the type, it gives you a new 
understanding and appreciation of that.
And even though there are a lot of 
similarities, there are a lot of differences 
in texture in the way a printed page looks 
versus a photocopied page. I think it 
continues to broaden what people do and 
how they can combine things. 
CUNNINGHAM: Jerger sees a trend back 
towards the hand arts because working with 
these old processes has hidden benefits.
JERGER: “(34:09 –) In this world where 
you can get from Point A to Point B in a 
millisecond, it makes you have to step 
back, think what you are doing, develop 
the plan to get from Point A to Point B 
a little more time and thought. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
18 
 
(Jerger) Even with any printmaking technique 
there is the whole reversal of the type or 
the image. So that’s a whole different way 
of making your mind process things. And 
it can be very challenging at first for 
people in a way its about developing 
skills to be a more creative problem 
solver.  
CUNNINGHAM: These artists have chosen 
different discarded machines that have 
made them respect those who mastered the 
machines without the aid of modern 
technologies. A knowledge that has made 
them more engaged to the rest of their lives 
and the art that can come out of it. 
(Jalopy)

(Lerner)

JALOPY: “I do buy things that are 
neglected and am able to celebrate them
and explain to people why they are great.
And in a construct with all my other stuff, 
it all seems to come together.” 
LERNER: “It’s like literature. Some 
people are writing novels, and other
people are writing poetry, other people 
are writing nonfiction, and its not that 
one is more beautiful or better 
understands the essence of what 
language can do, but rather these are 
tools that can be used to go in all sorts of 
different directions, express all different 
sorts of feelings or sentiments.”
 

 

 
 
 
19 
 
(Niffenegger) NIFFENEGGER: “Every different 
technology gives you a different result. 
Some of the technologies are fast and 
some are slow. One of the things I like 
about letterpress and all its related 
paraphernalia is that it’s extremely slow 
and you have time to do things 
differently; time to think. It’s a very 
layered kind of process with lots and lots 
of steps. I like that about it.” 
CUNNINGHAM: Society may have moved on 
to other things but these artists continue to 
find value, inspiration and art in these 
discarded materials.
(Niffenegger) NIFFENEGGER: “Part of it is the more 
toys, the more types of machines, the 
more stuff we can do. And every piece of 
equipment we buy seems to see a wave of 
student work.  For example we bought a 
perforator, which is a machine that puts 
the little holes, like you see in postage 
stamps. And all of a sudden you see this 
wave of artists’ stamps being generated 
by the students. So each new thing, the 
artists converge on it and ask ‘what can 
we do with this?’” 
CUNNINGHAM: Each of these artists has 
found a way to cherish and preserve these
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
20 
 
 
(Closing Shots of each of them in their
studios and the equipment they use)
technologies while advancing the capacities 
in a manner the tradespeople of the past 
would never have envisioned”  
In the end, the salvaging of this equipment 
may help us to think differently, while 
pushing the boundaries in different ways; 
finding artistic inspiration from objects 
earmarked for the dump. Which may allow 
future generations to experience this 
equipment first hand rather than reading 
about it on print outs from their laser jet 
printer and taking recycling to a whole new 
level.  I’m Matt Cunningham.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Throughout time, works of art have been used to gain historical understand the society in which it was created. But now, there is a growing trend for artists to use discarded materials as their medium, becoming archivist of discarded and antiquated technologies.

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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

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Asset Metadata

Creator Cunningham, Matthew Brendan (author)

Core Title Artist as archivist

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Broadcast Journalism)

Publication Date 05/18/2009

Defense Date 04/01/2009

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag antiquated technologies,Audrey Niffenegger,craft,Holly Jerger,Jesse Lerner,Mr. Jalopy,OAI-PMH Harvest,printing press

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Page, Ellis Tim (committee chair), Muller, Judy (committee member), Yahraus, Bill (committee member)

Creator Email MatthewBCunningham@Gmail.com,MBCunnin@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2256

Unique identifier UC1292155

Identifier etd-Cunningham-2861 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-235620 (legacy record id),usctheses-m2256 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Cunningham-2861.pdf

Dmrecord 235620

Document Type Project

Rights Cunningham, Matthew Brendan

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu