This publication accompanies the exhibition The Negligent Eye, curated by Jo Stockham, Head of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art, and developed in collaboration with the Bluecoat, Liverpool, 8 March – 15 June 2014. The exhibition reflected the ways artists use scanning technology in their work, particularly in the area of printmaking.

This publication develops these ideas through essays by Stockham and Chantal Faust that explore the idea that the scan is both a ‘close reading and a glance’, an apparent contradiction that the artists explore through the rapidly developing scanning and other digital reprographic processes at their disposal.

Images of the works in the exhibition are accompanied by texts from the artists – including Cory Arcangel, Christiane Baumgartner, Jyll Bradley, Maurice Carlin, Susan Collins, Conroy/Sanderson, Nicky Coutts, Elizabeth Gossling, Juneau Projects, Bob Matthews, London Fieldworks, Marilène Oliver, South Atlantic Souvenirs, Imogen Stidworthy – in response to questions about their relationship to scanning.