Hynek Alt

With declining volumes of printed periodicals (newspapers, magazines) societies are losing an important piece of a uniting physical infrastructure. What is a newspaper when the content moves elsewhere? I want to develop a new project focused on the materiality and, metaphorically speaking, the transparency of the newspaper as a medium. While the eventual end of the printed newspaper is set, I want to use this brief period of inevitable future and current availability to research the state of newspaper printing facilities, focusing mainly on country-wide dailies but also exploring various local periodical publications. The politics and frictions that emerge through the essentially empty medium are equally interesting to me, however unobvious or surprising these may be. Initially, I want to research large and smaller facilities where newspapers are printed in Hungary. I plan to observe the printing technology, make photographic and video documentation, understand the logistics and economics of the process. I am interested in the physical experience of holding a newspaper with two hands, reading a newspaper in a group, rolling a newspaper to kill a fly, etc. Partially from the documentation of printing facilities, partially from other sources, I want to create new imagery, new content for a proposed new newspaper. In the final stage of my residency, I will work on an exhibition proposal.