Sandra De Rycker

About Sandra’s Research:

My research examines Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio environment and practice, considering the role that collaboration, participation and process play in the conceptual development of prints. Using methods of participation in and observation of the studio’s projects, and analysing its archives, I ask whether a socio-semiotic approach may illuminate the implicit values of collaboratively produced prints. 

My doctoral project uses ethnographic and multimodal perspectives to highlight the agency and critical significance of artists’ collaborative processes in the print-making workshop environment. I approach the workshop and printing press as peripheral and dialogic spaces in which a collective semiosis of social, material and technical resources occurs. Through individual case studies of collaborating artists and printers (Andrew Lacon, Alberta Whittle, Rae-Yen Song and Annalee Davis working with Annis Fitzhugh as collaborating head printer) I explore prevailing visual and textual hierarchies in the discourse around print and the underlying paradoxes of such systems. 

This research is underpinned by my professional experience of working closely with artists in the research, development, exhibition and documentation of contemporary art in arts institutions, international galleries and museums.

During my time with the SGSAH partnership and doctoral training programme I have been part of the Discipline+ Catalyst for Cultural & Museum Studies network and served as Chair and Co-Chair of the SGSAH Doctoral Researcher Committee.