Curated News
By: NewsRamp Editorial Staff
July 30, 2026
Paper Prints Bridge Digital and Physical Worlds in New Art Research
TLDR
- Gain an edge by applying expanded trompe l'oeil techniques to engage audiences through material imperfections in digital-physical artworks.
- The paper analyzes how photographs are digitally processed into textures, printed, and placed as physical surfaces to reveal gaps between virtual and material.
- By making visible the difference between surface repair and structural fix, the art encourages critical thinking about urban decay and renewal.
- Artists used printed paper repairs placed over cracked Chicago surfaces, creating temporary interventions that highlight illusion versus reality.
Impact - Why it Matters
This research matters because it challenges our perception of reality in an increasingly digital age. By making visible the gap between virtual representation and physical objects, the paper offers insights into how we interact with images and surfaces in everyday life—from digital screens to printed materials. For artists, designers, and technologists, the concept of 'expanded trompe l'oeil' opens new avenues for creative practice that blur the boundaries between the real and the simulated. For the general public, it encourages a more critical awareness of the constructed nature of visual experiences, from social media filters to augmented reality. Understanding this gap can help us navigate a world where the line between authentic and artificial is constantly shifting.
Summary
A new peer-reviewed paper published in the Proceedings of EVA London 2026 explores how photography, digital processing, and paper printing can transform images into physical surfaces. The open-access paper, available at https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2026.15, is authored by Jiaqi Li, Wenru Xu, and Elke Reinhuber. It examines two artworks by Jiaqi Li: New Nature (2019) and Fixing Chicago Neighbourhood (2020). In New Nature, photographs of organic materials like banana peel, chicken skin, and plants were processed into repeating digital textures and printed on paper, resulting in over fifty hollow sculptural forms. This work contrasts the visual appearance of organic matter with a lightweight, constructed interior, highlighting the separation between surface and structure.
Fixing Chicago Neighbourhood began with photographs of damaged surfaces in Chicago—cracks in roads, walls, paving, and transit stations. The damaged areas were digitally reconstructed and printed at approximately their original scale, then placed over the damaged sites as temporary interventions. Rather than repairing the underlying material, these paper images made visible the difference between an appearance of repair and actual material repair. The authors position these projects between simulation, trompe l'oeil, and optical illusion, deliberately retaining visible seams, repeated textures, and paper edges to let viewers recognize the image's construction while it occupies physical space.
The paper introduces the term "expanded trompe l'oeil" for contemporary practices that extend beyond illusionistic painting to include photography, digital printing, sculpture, installation, screens, projections, public interventions, and video-game aesthetics. It argues that the imperfect return of a digital image to material form can reveal a productive gap between virtual representation and physical objects. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd., the paper appears on pages 83-88 of the open-access Proceedings of EVA London 2026. EVA London, or Electronic Visualisation and the Arts, is an interdisciplinary conference on art, visualization, and digital technologies. Surface & Signal Press, an independent arts-research communications imprint operated by Jeekwai Art Co Ltd, announces this publication, focusing on how images, materials, and technical systems shape public and everyday environments.
Source Statement
This curated news summary relied on content disributed by 24-7 Press Release. Read the original source here, Paper Prints Bridge Digital and Physical Worlds in New Art Research
