I chose to complete the potato printing activity for this task. The first challenge I encountered was applying marker to the flesh of the potato. There was some kind of reaction between the ink and the starch which caused the marker to stop working. I used a new sharpie and I still couldn’t get more than one line of ink. I used a yam rather than a potato (what I had on hand) and I wonder if the starch/sugar composition of the tuber was the issue.  I decided to freestyle my letters and quickly became thankful that I only had two letters with significant curvature, I also chose to use uppercase letters which have more straight lines. I was grateful that I watched the video about manual printing and remembered to make my letters backwards. For my uppercase letters that only mattered for letters with curvatures “S” and “J”. The rest of my letters are symmetrical along at least one axis (“A” “E” and “M”). In all it took about thirty minutes to complete the stamps and make two prints of my daughter’s name.

I enjoyed doing the activity since I have a bit of a soft spot for stamps. It reminded me of creating my wedding invitations which I drew by hand and had laser cut onto rubber stamps. I then manually stamped each invitation. At the time it did not occur to me that there was a parallel between my process and early “printing” of diagrams and images in books (How it Began). I agree with Brad Harris that hand illuminated codexis, mechanical book printing, stamping and other forms of “making” generate objects that hold value above and beyond the textual content. In terms of output and dissemination of ideas each evolution of writing/printing has increased both the speed and spread of ideas, certainly people being able to self publish through laser/ink jet printing has resulted in a wider spread of ideas just as the printing press opened up discourse to a wider range of social strata. With digital publishing and social media even more people are able to engage in discourse. My feeling is that with each iteration, “Text” both becomes more democratic and loses layers of authority. Coming from a Disability justice background, I value digital mediums that foster greater access and voice for folks who do not read and write through conventional means. I did have pause while completing this task that both potato printing and manual writing are not readily accessible to all students. “Cripping” this task could generate another perspective on who has access to print discourse and the disruptive presence of disabled bodies. It reminded me of my former instructor and disability artist Eliza Chandler’s practice https://www.ryerson.ca/disability-studies/people/faculty/eliza-chandler/