semiconductor printmaking

This printmaking project derived from research into historical and contemporary infrastructure of semiconductor chip manufacturing. Juxtaposing lino-cuts and photolithography, a component of chip manufacture that led to increased reproducibility and standardization, it investigates the role of craft and handwork in industrial-scale fabrication systems and in processes of discovery.

Printmaking processes form a conceptual and material bridge between contemporary technology and historical encyclopedia projects like the Enlightenment’s Encyclopedie — tying together these multiple moments in communications technology and the circulation of knowledge.

A crucial moment occurred in 1973 when photolithography enabled a drastic increase in the reproducibility, standardization, and consistency of chips. At this moment, chip design moved from hand sketching to computer programming, contributing to the creation of the digital and computational world.