Find more staff
Role:
Department staff:
Research staff:
Teaching staff:
- Qualifications:BA, MA, PhD
- Position:Senior Lecturer in BA Illustration
- Department:Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries, and Education (ACE)
- Telephone:+441173284988
- Email:Paul.Laidler@uwe.ac.uk
-
Social media:
About me
Paul Laidler is a Senior Lecturer in Illustration at UWE Bristol, where his research examines the evolving relationship between human creativity and technological innovation. His work began with doctoral research investigating the Master Printer's role in the digital age, establishing a foundation for exploring how technological processes shape creative agency and artistic production.
Building on his doctoral research into collaborative and mediated creative processes, he co-established CFPR Editions, a fine art print publishing studio within UWE that serves as both a research platform and practical laboratory for investigating technological mediation in artistic production. The studio's emphasis on collaborative dialogue between artists, printers, and digital tools has provided crucial insights into how creative agency operates in technologically-mediated environments. This research focus naturally led to securing two REACT (Research & Enterprise in Arts & Creative Technologies) grants, which explored how app technologies could extend collaborative possibilities in printed matter, further examining the intersection of digital and physical creation.
A consistent thread throughout his practice has been the investigation of remakes and derivatives as transformative acts, from printmaking's historical relationship with reproduction to contemporary questions of AI-generated imagery. This investigation has evolved through several significant projects, beginning with "Just Press Print," an international touring exhibition that revealed the often-hidden dialogues between artists and technology. This research expanded into "Looking Through the Eyes of Machines," an international print exchange project examining post-digital responses in graphic arts practice. This initiative, connecting institutions across the UK, USA, and Spain, explored how emerging practitioners navigate the technological mediation of creative practice, particularly investigating what Bruce Sterling describes as the "raw graphic novelty" generated by our contemporary technological landscape.
His research consistently explores the spaces between digital and physical production, examining how creative practices navigate technological translation, trace, and authenticity in an increasingly digitized landscape. Currently, Paul's Research Investment Scheme project (2023-25) investigates human-AI collaboration in creative practice. This work examines questions of agency and authorship in an age of algorithmic creation, particularly focusing on how AI systems both echo and transform traditional questions of originality and reproduction that have long been central to printmaking discourse. His distinctive interdisciplinary approach bridges art and design practices, aligning with Poetic Design principles to move beyond commercial imperatives and explore how artefacts can serve as critical mediums for cultural reflection. This approach challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries and emphasizes narrative and performative methods in shaping visual vocabulary.
As an Associate Editor of Intellects Drawing Research Theory Practice journal and through his role as external examiner for programs including Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, he contributes to shaping international discourse around practice-based research in art and design. His work appears in major collections including the V&A and Tate Britain, and he has undertaken significant residencies at institutions including The University of Texas at Austin and The Eugeniusz Geppert Academy Wroclaw Poland.
Area of expertise
Paul’s research is primarily concerned with the impact of digital technologies upon the role of artist, designer and maker in post digital practices. His approach to research draws upon practice related inquiries that are fostered through studio based productions. His area of expertise is rooted in the collaborative print studio model and the realisation of digitally mediated prints for artists. By investigating and documenting the holistic nature of creating printed artifacts within a fine art context Paul's PhD explored the role of the Master Printer in the digital age. Therefore the research examined whether, through the increased democratisation of technology, the role is still significant. It also studied how the Master Printer may mediate the work and whether this is still acceptable or necessary.
Publications
Publications loading...