Digital BW, The Print

> 
> There's a guy out here in Encinitas, CA who makes some beautiful 
art in the sand at low tide and watches it wash away.  Much like the 
monks in the Himalaya with their mandalas.
> 

There is a GREAT movie out there (obscure...art houses only) RIVERS 
AND TIDES, about the art of Andy Goldsworthy which is made up on 
shores and in rivers and dissipates rather quickly <g>...but he DOES 
back them up with good photos (which he makes a living from).

Martin's concepts of following the art and striking a balance 
resonate. Our images may be art, but our prints are something 
else...the purpose of the print is to enable some degree of duration 
for the image. On the other hand, I think we all realize that we are 
really just experimenting with our passion for inkjet printing...the 
good news is that so long as we back our our files, we can do it over 
again as the technology or materials improve or at least as we learn 
more about which combinations really will work long term. 

I think the decisions made by folks here in the forum to use various 
inks on even more various papers is creating a huge organic database 
of results...but we have very little in the way of standards and data 
collection, so our learning process is a pretty crooked trail. I can 
only assume the Epsons and Canons of the world are going about the 
process very scientifically, but I don't hold out any real hope that 
they will put the effort into BW process any time soon...or to the 
degree that we will desire.

Is there some standards group or research outfit we could affiliate 
with to try to order our db? If SETI can capture data with SETI at 
home, we should be able to do SOMETHING with all the data we are 
creating ...

Absent something more scientific, we follow our instincts...shying 
away from dye ink seems to be the first step for many, but who knows 
if X pigment with Y paper is really going to be measureably better 
over the really long term?

Tom O'Connell