Opening party and Patrick Sutherland talk

Tuesday 17 June

4.30-6.30pm

Come and join us in our new home to mark the opening of ‘Paper Topographies: A Collaboration between Anna Fricker and Patrick Sutherland’, a new exhibition at the Photography and the Archive Research Centre.

‘Paper Topographies’ showcases research work undertaken to investigate the de-inking of paper using high-intensity ultrasound. The project incorporates a collection of images made by Anna Fricker in 2006, during her post as Research Assistant at the UAL Materials and the Arts Research Centre (MATAR). The results were edited by Patrick Sutherland and first shown at the Institute of Physics in 2007, and later published by Surface Coatings International.

A significant number of the images are from handsheets prepared from repulped paper that had been printed with solid black print using the Indigo toner technology known as ElectroInk. After printing, the paper was disintegrated and in some instances, exposed to ultrasound. The resulting pulps were reformed into sheets of paper on a sheet former. In the cases where ultrasound was employed, the paper pulp was sonicated at 20kHz for periods of either 10 or 20 minutes at a constant temperature of 20°C.

Images were also captured from virgin paper fibre and a number of filler samples from dispersed Ground Calcium Carbornate (GCC), undispersed and dispersed Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC). A number of these filler specimens were also exposed to ultrasound.

This showing of ‘Paper Topographies’ revisits the project using the original prints, which were rediscovered and rescued by PARC in the former LCC Science Laboratory (now PARCsPACE) in 2014. The series has been re-edited and curated by Professor Patrick Sutherland and this showing has been organised by Robin Christian, PARC Projects Officer.

Anna Fricker worked at London College of Communication between 2003-13 as Research Assistant with the Materials and the Arts Research Centre (MATAR). During this time her work focused on the use of high-intensity ultrasound to de-ink printed paper and the effect of ultrasound on the size distributions of paper fillers. She is currently a PhD Student at the Department of Materials at Imperial College London.

Patrick Sutherland is a core member of PARC, a UAL Professor and an LCC Postgraduate Tutor. He is a documentary photographer with a particular interest in the Tibetan communities of North India.

This is a Photography and the Archive Research Centre event