A 19th-century printing press at the Rochester Institute of Technology has gone digital.
The Kelmscott/Goudy Albion printing press is a marvel of cast iron with a bell on top, to be rung after a print is complete. It was owned by noted British textile designer William Morris and others; a later owner installed the bell as a symbol of the enduring freedom of the press.
RIT acquired the machine in 2013. The physical press lives on campus, inside the Cary Graphic Arts Collection.
Now, it exists in the digital realm, too, thanks in part to Steven Galbraith, the Cary Collection’s curator.
“People have printed on that press, but most of the time, it sits still,” Galbraith said. “We want to replicate that experience [for] more people, and if we’re doing it digitally, it’s our challenge to get it as close to the original experience as possible.”
Galbraith collaborated with 3D digital design professor Shaun Foster and some of his students to create the app, including 2023 alum Aidan Grant. It’s available for free on the digital gaming platform Steam.
Foster said the VR press works just the same as its physical version. The app recreates the printing process from ink rolling to hand-cranking and pressing.
“We’re exploring the emergent technical constraints and seeing the integration of the new tools,” Foster said, adding that the experience combines “the old and the new.”
He also mentioned the idea of digital doubles, a term gaining ground in several different industries. This app, for example, points to a broader future where buildings and even entire cities may have digital copies.
“It’s becoming a thing now where more and more physical spaces or objects have a digital double,” Foster said, “and not only will they have a digital double, but there will be real-time sensor information, as we move into the future, from these physical objects that will translate.”
A few feet from the press, Galbraith demoed the experience with a VR headset and controllers. The digital print was a gorgeous, highly ornate replication of a poetic work. It’s a nod to the press’s history; the most notable book published by the press was “The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer.”
The bell’s sound, like every other noise on the machine as represented in the VR app, is authentic. The team placed microphones on the press itself to capture them. Galbraith had fun with that part of the process.
“At one point, I just stacked all the tracks and let them go at once. We called it ‘Press Sounds’ instead of ‘Pet Sounds,'” he said, referencing the Beach Boys’s 1966 psychedelic-pop masterpiece.
After the demo was through and the print was done, Galbraith, of course, rang the virtual bell — though because of the headset, only he could hear the clang.
“I can assure you it just [dinged],” he said with a laugh.
Patrick Hosken is CITY’s arts reporter. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
