WWDN Digital works with community groups and organisations to set up and run digital spaces, host collaborative programmes, and create shared online resources to increase communities’ access to technology and training in digital media skills. As part of its launch, The Stove Network hosted Off the Margin, a micro-festival celebrating Dumfries’ print heritage.
In this age of digital media outlets and information sharing, Off the Margin delved into the print heritage of Dumfries and investigative journalism more broadly.
As part of this programme, The Stove’s Artistic Director Martin O’Neill sat down for an insightful discussion with a panel of speakers whose expertise ranged from the history of investigative journalism to Riso printing techniques and working in the former news and print spaces of Dumfries’ high street.
While examining the current landscape in Scottish grassroots print and journalism, the panel tackled how communities, creatives, and journalists can reclaim their agency while navigating an era marked by an increasingly divided mass media and heightened public scrutiny regarding the accuracy and biases of printed media. This discussion revealed insights and sparked a hopeful community discussion on the potential future of print, media, and journalism in Dumfries and Galloway.
The discussion directly followed a screening of film-work Imprints in Time by Artist John Wallace, documenting the master printmakers and enduring machinery still in use at Solway Print while uncovering the printing heritage of Dumfries town centre.
The panel comprised of Judith Hewitt (Museums Curator East for the Dumfries and Galloway Council), Johnny Gailey (Out of the Blueprint Project Manager), Karen Goodwin (Investigative Journalist and Co-Editor of The Ferret), Pete Fortune (Doonhamer* and Printmaker), and John Wallace (Artist & Filmmaker).
Each panellist brought unique and specialised knowledge into the discussion. Hewitt shared her expertise on the unique history of early print protest, bringing to life Doonhamers’ struggles and lived experiences in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From historical accounts of the Kings Arms (now Boots) to outlining how individuals used print to protest food inequalities, Hewitt brought with her a wealth of knowledge that leaves you returning for more. Out with the panel, she oversaw the exhibition ‘Fighting for Justice: Strikes and Protests in Dumfries 1770-1920’ as part of the Off the Margin period.
Gailey brought over a decade of experience in printmaking and youth engagement to the conversation, underlining the importance of teaching young people this skill and providing them with the means and opportunities to grow their confidence and creativity. At Out of the Blueprint, the eco-studio he co-manages in Leith, Edinburgh, he specialises in Japanese printing techniques such as RISO,
GOCCO, and provides mentorships for young artists. They offer affordable, sustainable, and ethical print services for the local community and reinvest all profits to support young people through residencies, publishing support, training, and education initiatives.
Goodwin works as a journalist and a co-editor for The Ferret, a media co-op where she reports extensively on social affairs and health inequalities. While on the panel, she highlighted the importance of community-owned news for tackling media bias and misinformation. Outside The Ferret Goodwin has written for many Scottish and UK broadsheets, magazines, and online platforms, including the Sunday Times and the Guardian, reported for BBC Scotland’s Disclosure, and has worked on other radio and film projects. She is currently writing and co-hosting the podcast ‘Sheku Bayoh: The Inquiry’.
Fortune’s working life began in the printers of Dumfries, having grown up in a golden thread family line of Doonhamer printmakers. Pete Fortune brings a vivid, real-life account of the industry, capturing his apprenticeship and the vibrant characters and community of the town at the peak of the printing era. He rounded the discussion out by proposing the lifelong fellowships that printmaking can craft. Fortune moved on in his career to become a social worker and is now a writer of memoirs and short fiction.
Wallace, the artist behind Imprints in Time, brought to the panel a career that expands across multiple disciplines, from installation work to filmmaking. His work delves into human relationships with constructed and natural environments, emphasising the idea of ‘insider art’, allowing locations that personally connect to the artist to be central to a film’s narrative. Inspired by the fusion of technology and the environment, Wallace incorporates live and historical data sources to craft the responsive, dynamic audiovisuals found in Imprints in Time and all his installation spaces.
‘Off the Margin Micro-Festival’ ran between March 22nd and 23rd, 2024, as part of the What We Do Now Digital Media Festival.
*A Doonhamer is a colloquial term to describe someone who is born and bred in Dumfries
