iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

When you put it like that, it's even more impressive..

Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It is a scary time. A time of great and rapid change. I find it deeply unsettling. But we don't know what will emerge. I am optimistic that there will be good, through the power of individuals making real connections, whether in person or remotely.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

AI is teaching us how much we need human generated input, with all it's inefficiency and flaws. People will increasingly seek it out. Not everyone. But enough to leave spaces for the hand made, the human spoken, the act of connecting to other feeling, conscious, beings.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The oil basin gives a far better finish. But it's a bigger endeavour to get it cleaned up. So I tend to proof with water based and do edition prints with oil based.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Here is the swan print framed, side by side with its companion. I've discovered SO much in the process of designing, cutting, printing and framing these. I now need to go back and do them again from scratch, implementing what I've learned. Or I could try a different creature.

Two framed relief prints leaning on a bookcase. Each shows a grid of 9 birds in different positions. The left side print is all crows flying. The right hand print is swans preening.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Having fun framing up some of my old prints. There's a small, subversive joy in formally presenting the odd, the unworthy and the quirky. Especially with clashing colours.

A framed relief print hangs on a wall. The print is black on pink. It shows two beatles in top down view.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This print is a partner for the Crow Catalogue print I produced earlier in the year. It will hopefully make more sense when framed and the right way up...

Three black on white relief prints hang in a cluttered garage. Each shows a grid of 9 swans in different preening positions.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I happened to see swans close up the other day on my way back from DMU. They were doing some focused feather care. The positions they got into seemed almost impossible. So, I had to try a new print design. It's not finished yet. But here's the state of play.

Kitchen table with a mess of art stuff. (Not much room left for eating). Prominent in the foreground, a vinyl relief print block showing nine swans in a 3 by 3 grid. Each is in a different position. Most are preening. Next to the plate is a test print.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Shadow of fly. Beacon Hill. 2 days ago.

A beech leaf in the woods, back lit by the sun, more like stained glass than plant. On the other side of the leaf a fly has landed. Its shadow darkens the lit green of the leaf. Even the fretwork of its wings is rendered in shadow.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Season of mists and fruitful pumpkins.

A minature pumpkin is held in a hand. Both pumpkin and hand are wrinkly.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It makes for a lot of creative thinking in the kitchen.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

There are so many foods I can't eat. But these... I can.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's that time of year again. My favourite season.

A minature pumpkin dappled dark green on yellow is held in a wrinkled hand against a plain wall. The light is soft and diffuse.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This poster is apparently up in the Central Library in Leicester. I feel very honoured to be included.

Poster in the style of the cover of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. But the drum in the middle reads Made In Leicester. The collaged figures are of people associated with Leicester. Including the Attenborough brothers, Thomas Cook, Sue Townsend, Filbert Fox, Tanky Smith and many more.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Another experiment with over printing different colours of ink. This time on Ho-sho paper with oil based ink.

Relief print of two swans under a fantastical moon. The injs are mottled with several colours.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

But do I want empty calories? On balance, right now, yes.

A packet of Seabrook salt and vinegar crisps lies unopened on a kitchen table.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I have yet to face that question. But I suspect it will be a matter of putting the work away for a time and then coming back to it fresh with hopefully more objective eyes

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I really struggle with that drive for perfection. It is the enemy of creativity. For me, at least. A lot of my creative practice involves a negotiation between perfectionism and spontaneous discovery.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I've noticed this overprinting in different colours in the work of Sybil Andrews. I like the way it pushes me to lean into the imperfections rather than 'solving' them.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Trying something a bit different in my printing technique. Using the tooth of the paper to incompletely lay down colour. And printing several layers of different inks from the same plate. This is an experiment.

Relief print of two swans and the moon. Highly stylised. The print is roughly inked in black, blue, green and yellow. There are many white speks where the paper shows through.

Low angle shot of a blue vinyl relief plate in the process of being carved. A cutting tool lies out of focus behind the plate.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Looking forward to seeing you there.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Thank you. One day the stars will align.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Getting ready to do a workshop at Edge Lit on Saturday. What has this to do with world-building, you may ask. Come to the workshop and you'll find out.

Three identical copies of an 'optical illusion' picture. A forked construction seems to have three tines at one end but two at the other, depending on how and where you look.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I just unrolled this painting for the first time in many years. It was given to 'S' and I by the principal of a school in Muzah, Taiwan, after we'd delivered an environmental education workshop there. The painting shows the great caligrapher Wang Xi Zhi and one of his geese.

A painting of the great caligrapher Wang Xi Zhi reclining in a blue garment, observing one of his beloved geese. The goose looks back at him. There is Chinese calligraphy in the traditional style to the top and left. The painting is in a Chinese impressionist style.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Inequality is inherently dangerous.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Money has a will of its own. It wants to accumulate into the largest possible heap. It will latch onto the vector most likely to bend to its desire. To the detriment of all. That's why we need legislation, so that human needs (rather than money's need) wins out.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

There is no mechanism for slowing. The companies are always going to try to maximise shareholder returns. That means fast development. No national government has the power to regulate this. And no international legislative mechanisms yet exist that could protect us.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

"I'd like to buy a country please." "I'm sorry sir, that's not legal." "But I'm obscenely rich." "In which case, may I suggest buying an election instead? It's very much the same thing, but has a veneer of legitimacy." "Wonderful. Do you take crypto?" "That'll do nicely, sir."

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It is produced directly by a process, as marbling is.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Messing around with framing up old work for fun. Just to see how it looks framed.

Framed square decalcomania abstract in blue. It could suggest different things to different people. A wave? A mountain? Moon rise over a strange planet? Closeup footprint of a turtle in wet sand?

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Very lovely. Thanks for sharing it.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I've been looking at photos online and I don't think it's labernum.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I know it but can't remember the name... it'll come to me

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Waiting for the number 13 bus, I had a lucky encounter with these beautiful shapes and colours.

Seed pods hanging from a tree. They are green and yellow. They curl to form helical shapes. The individual seeds show through as lines of bumps. The background is branches and leaves and sky.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Plotting a novel feels very much like trying to neatly fold a fitted sheet.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Frayed edges is a fairly accurate indicator of my mountboard cutting skills...

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The whole ‘learning to cut mountboard’ thing came about because of this print - The Crow Catalogue. I've now, inexpertly, framed it up. I still have lots of learning to do. But the imperfections are the mark of my hand, so I'm not too displeased.

A framed relief print rests on a bookcase. The print shows 9 crows in different positions of flight, arranged as a grid.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

When I was a young child, my father brought home a book of his prints from the university library. I was completely fascinated by them.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Conversation ensues about what Barthes assumes about intentionality in Camera Lucida...

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I have in mind to produce a wider version with more figures. A longer melody.

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