Teh Tiperighter Revlooshun

This is a poem from 1920 written by D.J. Enright. It comes from a book called The Typewriter Revolution & Other Poems. I actually came across this poem in another book called Grammophon Film Typewriter (which turned out to be all in German... blast!). It seems like it really has a lot of potential though so I am going to try and track down an English version. Anyway, here is the poem. I found it quite humorous, especially when taking into consideration that it comes from 1920.


I think that this poem is a very relevant commentary even today. Not necessarily related to typewriters anymore, but more-so in word processing technologies and software. I am also reading a book right now called The Electric Language by Michael Heim. One part that I recall that comes to mind talks about how, traditionally, intelligence was largely dependent on your level of literacy - you were considered less intelligent if you possessed a poor ability to spell and write. Word processing - which spurred on in part by the evolution of the typewriter - has eliminated the need for people to know how to spell correctly and properly.

With this being said, I find it interesting - and partly humorous - that because I am completely used to typing on screen through a word processor of some sort, I find the typewriter forces me to become much more conscious of every letter that I type. In this way, I become much more aware of any mistakes in grammar and spelling. They become much more offensive and troublesome as I cannot simply hit backspace, backspace, backspace... then re-type.

Arduino 101

This comes from the Make blog. I figure with everyone moving along nicely with their objects and Patrick starting to talk about Arduino boards I should post this up. Do check it out (click this).

Words from the Make blog:

Wow! Adafruit dropped a MASSIVE amount of Arduino tutorials AND kits (beginner kits and shields). If you're interested in getting started with electronics this is one of the best ways and these tutorials are the most comprehensive online -

One of the nice things about the Arduino boards & software is they let people get started hacking electronics fast. However, I was looking for a good step-by-step tutorial that helped people with almost no experience through the first few steps of microcontroller programming and basic electronics design. At the same time, I'd been flipping through Parallax's excellent "What is a Microcontroller" workbook and decided to start writing something similar.

So check out my Arduino Tutorial page and give me feedback! Right now I've got 3 lessons up, and will try to get a another 3 out in the next week and a half.

• Lesson 0. Pre-flight check...Is your Arduino and computer ready?
  
• Lesson 1. The "Hello World!" of electronics, a simple blinking light
  
• Lesson 2. Sketches, variables, procedures and hacking code
  
• Lesson 3. Breadboards, resistors and LEDs, schematics, and basic RGB color-mixing. At the end of lesson three, you build a mood lamp!
  

Exploitation

One thing that has definitely interested me for a while is pattern making - especially through repetition of letter forms and other characters found on the keyboard. The typewriter offers an interesting opportunity to manually (as opposed to on-screen) produce these patterns through the exploitation of individual characters. I think this is the beginning of how I can start to look at the typewriter as a tool for making rather than writing. Below are just a couple of experiments.


Below: A series of alternating brackets. Play with overlapping lines and manual linespacing.


More to come.

Obsession Statement - Pg 5 / ...

So, here is my "obsession statement" - if I do have such a thing. I think the making of my obsession statement is more accurate in describing what my actual obsession (or rather compulsion?) is than what I ended up writing - but maybe the writing gets at it as well. The image posted is the 5th page / attempt at a perfect rendition of my obsession statement. As you can see there are errors within it. I have not yet been able to type a flawless page.

I've realized that with all of my talk, and thinking, about what I am obsessed with there is one major common factor across all of them: my propensity to want (or need) to do things perfectly. It is both a blessing and a curse and usually involves over-thinking things. The typewriter is a very fitting instrument for practicing the art of perfection. I find myself really having to concentrate on every letter being typed. There is no easy solution for a mistyped character (the delete button). There is no red line which magically appears underneath a misspelled word. It almost seems as if words have more personal value when they are manually typewritten.

I'll keep trying.

The Iron Whim - A Fragmented History of Typewriting

I started reading this last night. Haven't gotten too far, but it is pretty interesting so far. I actually had to get this from the Winnipeg Public Library system, as the University does not own it (and I had to get a new library card because, apparently, your card expires if you don't use it for 10 years... weird hey?). This is from the back cover:

The Iron Whim is an intelligent, irreverent, and humorous history that traces the haphazard trajectory of a writing culture and technology. With subject matter ranging over two hundred years of literature, philosophy, popular culture, and mechanical innovation, this stimulating book probes the very nature of creativity, examines how typewriting has shaped workplaces and practices, and dissects our nostalgia for a method of communicating that has all but vanished.

As I read along I will add my own insights and reflections.

Brother AX-18 Vivisection

Progress. This weekend I spent taking apart my 1987 Brother AX-18 electronic typewriter. I think I got a little too hung up on drawing pieces that really did not reveal anything to me that I could not understand without taking them off. There are a lot of lids and casings to the body that took up my time. In hindsight, I should have spent more time on the guts of the thing. Once I did get through the casing, however, I realized that it is basically made up of 4 components: A power supply. The print-head and chassis. The circuit board. And the keyboard. Here is the progress.


The Brother AX-18 before vivsection.




Keyboard Lid removed. Boring.


Paper Lid removed. It gets more interesting, I promise.



Rear Maintenance Lid removed. Don't give up yet.



Front Maintenance Lid removed.



The Body Casing removed. Finally it starts to really come apart.


Right Platen Knob. Basically this piece (as well as the following left platen knob) turns the paper feed. I know. Pretty obvious, right?

Right Platen Knob. Here you can see the gear, however, which actually interacts with a corresponding gear attached to the print-head chassis.

The half-naked Brother AX-18. Sans top Body Casing.


Here lies the Ink Ribbon Cassette. Basically a little hammer hits the daisy wheel cassette, which in turn contacts the ink ribbon - leaving the impression of the letter on the page. Once again, obvious... I know.



The Daisy Wheel. This slots into the Print-Head and is the source of the letter form. As mentioned, the hammer on the Print-Head contacts the Daisy Wheel. Essentially this is a disc of arms with heads containing reversed letter forms. These are easily replaceable and allow for font changes. This is the advantage of Daisy Wheels over tradition typewriting methods, where you were not able to change fonts necessarily.



The Keyboard half-removed. It took a decent amount of force to actually un-clip this from the bottom tray. It was hanging on for dear life. Here you can clearly see the ribbon circuit which, essentially is the keyboard, connecting to the circuit board. It is a very simple connection. It slots into the circuit board and 2 clips lock it in place.



The Keyboard removed.



The Brother AX-18 sans keyboard.


Here you can see the print-head chassis removed. You can see the ground wire at the back sticking out from the power supply area of the unit. This was really the only thing holding it back, so once that was easily off I was able to splay the unit out further.


A detail of the Print-Head and Chassis. Basically, all the Print-Head is - is a hammer. A really intricate hammer.


Detail of the gear system which operates the paper feed roller.


Detail of the Print-Head.



More to come today. I've got the Circuit Board removed from its clips, and I am ready to begin to really pull the 4 components (power supply, print-head, circuit board, input device / keyboard) out of the bottom tray.

Trying to Sleep...

So, I definitely should be sleeping. I want to be back in studio by about 9 or 10am to get to work. But in my restlessness, I stumbled across some very interesting projects through Hackaday, by Aparna Rao. There are a few very relevant / cool projects within her site. I especially appreciated her "Book of Answers" - a book embedded with circuits and a speaker to help her indecisive Mother, make decisions. Another is her "Pop 22" project. Basically, it is a project which transforms an old typewriter into a device capable of sending emails for Rao's technologically challenged Mother. Be sure to also check out her "Internet Manual" under the Ideas area. Check it out.

Object 1: Brother AX-18

I lucked out and found two identical (twin) Brother AX-18 electronic typewriters at Value Village. These will be an object of obsession for this weekend. I will be performing a vivisection on it in order to examine its inner workings and deepest secrets. Stay tuned.

The Second in a List of Obsessions

So, I mentioned that graphic design was too broad to cover in one item. I listed posters first, and now I will talk about something that applies to any form of design. Typography. I am a self taught student of graphic design (for the most part) and I still have a LOT to learn about it. Typography is one of the most interesting aspects of graphic design for me and is probably the subject that I am most drawn to in terms of learning. The ability to arrange type well is extremely important to me as it is a functional and aesthetic concern. I will keep this post shorter than the last because I don't feel that I am qualified to talk about it and I'll probably end up sounding stupid and pretentious.

One thing that I really appreciate about typography is that with so many typefaces available (especially now due to more easily usable type design programs and free websites such as dafont - which I try to avoid now), there are usually one or two typefaces that just work for a project. Each typeface has its own characteristics and has the ability to "speak" in a different tone. The challenge lies in selecting the right type for the job.

Another aspect of typography that I both love and hate is its ability to suck you in to the most minute details and swallow hours of your time in making sure that you've set the appropriate leading for the page and text... that you've kerned the headings properly... or that you've eliminated all of your widows and orphans.

One really strong lesson I learned in doing the the AUM 07 Catalogue (click here to download a screen quality PDF, or here for a higher quality PDF) is that typography is not only important functionally in terms of readability and legibility, etc. but also extremely important in making sure that text is formatted correctly. This is probably the area that I have to work on the most. One very good book that has been a help, however, is The Elements of Typographic Style.

I've gone on longer than I had expected. So, I will end in saying I suspect typography will play a definite role in the development of my studio project. Letter-forms intrigue me - I would like to explore them further and I think that the objects that I have collected (which I will be documenting shortly and posting them up) will provide a good foundation for this exploration.

Applied Arts

So, this isn't necessarily directly related with Studio. But it will be relevant within the context of one of my next items of obsession, so I thought I'd post it up.

Zach Pauls and I have received an Applied Arts student award for our work on the 15th edition of the Warehouse Journal. You can see the feature on their website here or check it out at the bookstore or McNally.

Mosquitoes

I want to be a MOSQUITO. As Ken Kaplan and Ted Krueger suggest in their Pamphlet Architecture (#14) publication "Mosquitoes - A Handbook for Survival", mosquitoes "infect, inject, infest and inflame" - they "instill total raving panic from a series of harmless skirmishes" - they "reject steady-state politics for ideologies that are inherently incomplete, transient, and unstable, but that provide certain benefits over the short haul".

This was a very convenient and fitting read for me today. Just earlier during our afternoon lecture by the Head of Philosophy here at the U of M Carl Matheson, I came to a realization that (and I had believed this to a degree previously, just not positively) a sense of humour and a certain amount of humility is an important component in design and architecture. I mean humility not in the sense that you should not be proud of the work that you do, but rather that it is important not to take yourself too seriously. Kaplan and Krueger write with both a sense of urgency but also with a definite sense of humour. The projects displayed within their "handbook for survival" are often throbbing with irony and parody, and always full of socio-political commentary.

Written in '93 it is amazing to me the very accurate foresight that K/K had related to hacker culture and the importance of the internet in connecting MOSQUITOES. The Dedale Studio is a testament to their forsight.

I will have to have another read through of this "handbook for survival" before I can offer some more careful (and useful) insight. But what I will say is that I have heard K/K's wakeup call - the call to do away with any "dogmatic gases" (or at least attempt to filter it) and don't wait, just do... by any means necessary.

(A funny side-note: I read this book in the time that it took my Dad to get home from the University, realize he had forgotten me there, call me to tell me that he had forgotten me, drive back to the University to pick me up and take me home.)

The First in a List of Obsessions

In an attempt to aid myself in realizing (or accepting) a statement of obsession I will begin to admit my compulsions, infatuations, fixations and whatever other words that fit the meaning of obsession. Some will be more compromising than others, but I think that this coming year is about vulnerability.

So, to begin, I will admit to myself, and you, my first (in no particular order) obsession. I think it would be far too broad to simply say graphic design, so I will probably list a few obsessions that fall within this category. The first being posters. A poster, be it for a band, an event, a lecture, a series or a new type of toothpaste represents to me one of the free-est, most open-ended and "creative" type of project. I may have just been extremely lucky thus far in the sorts of (and I hesitate greatly in saying this out of fear of sounding like an asshole) clients I've had. But posters have allowed me to develop my ability to think conceptually and critically. The objective is simple, really. To communicate a message to a particular audience (which may be very broad or specific). The complexities arise in the dissection of the meaning of the message being communicated and the mentality of the target audience. It is within this dissection where ideas are found (as opposed to "came up with").

I suppose that my first real introduction to poster making came in my 3rd year of undergrad (or ED2). Zach Pauls and I decided we wanted to run for the "Graphics Council" within the SAS student committee. Our first posters were fairly crude, with most of our imagery manually cut and pasted from magazines or newspapers. It was a good start though. I still think of the playfulness of those posters when I get too "serious" about whatever it is I am designing. We ended up being elected into the Graphics position and were endowed with the responsibility of creating all of the posters for SAS events. It was a great experience.

At some point within ED3 I stumbled upon a website. Not just any website. It was (and still is) Poster Mecca - www.gigposters.com. This website is one of the single most important discoveries pertaining to my development as a designer (in general - not simply graphics). It opened my eyes to an entire scene that was (and still is) thriving. I began to browse through thousands and thousands - there are currently over 78,000+ posters listed on the site - of images. I became exposed to work being done by the likes of Aesthetic Apparatus, Jason Munn, The Heads of State, Seripop, Patent Pending - Jeff Kleinsmith and Jesse LeDoux to name only a handful.

I guess I should also say that giposters.com (or "geepee") is not simply a collection of poster artists and enthusiasts. It really is a community of extremely talented artists. It has basically led to many different personal discoveries, some being other obsessions that I will talk about - namely screen printing. I would encourage everyone to at least check out the site and browse through some of the work. I suppose I will also throw in a shameless plug for my own work. Click here to see it - feel free to sign up and leave a comment or critique. Or do it here, whatever you wish. I always enjoy feedback.

So, this is basically my story of obsession for posters. It continues to only get stronger with every poster I make as well as every new inspiring piece of work that I am subjected to.

The Sound Machines

I stumbled across this on the Make Blog.

These machines - created by Festo - look and sound absolutely incredible. It is very fitting after just having been through a lecture by Ken Gregory; a sound / acoustic / noise / video / kinetic artist. These machines, however, represent something completely opposite from the sort of work that Ken creates (which is much looser and maybe more "natural" - which is a very silly way of describing it - and is most often created with found objects and "junk"). These are very carefully crafted and machined instruments that exploit the precision which is achievable through the use of computing processes, and make it blatantly obvious to the audience. They also make some other radical machines, so be sure to check out their website - especially under the Bionic Learning Network area.

From Festo's website:

A pneumatic quintet will be playing at the Hanover Fair

Five automatic sound machines will provide musical accompaniment for the opening celebrations at the Hanover Fair – thanks to technology from Festo. Pneumatic components and a PLC control system will be applied very differently from the way they are used in industrial automation: They will create a bridge between technology and art.

Scene designer and robot artist Roland Olbeter developed and crafted the unique ensemble "The Sound Machines," an automated, electrical string quartet with a drum. The four string instruments sound and function like electric guitars, the difference being that each sound machine only has one string.

21 micro-cylinders from Festo are used in each sound machine. The micro-cylinders imitate the mechanical movements of a musician's left hand on the string instruments, determining the pitch of the tone by changing the length of the strings. Various drumsticks and a jazz brush are moved on the drum by micro-cylinders.

"Fast Blue Air," the music composed especially for the Hanover Fair by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin, explores the range of sounds generated by the sound machines including the noises produced by the pneumatics. On stage at the opening ceremony, "The Sound Machines" will also accompany a pop music and an aria from the concert for string quartet, drum and soprano "Orlando Furioso!" sung by mezzo soprano Claudia Schneider from Barcelona.

The music program played by "The Sound Machines" is saved in midi files, and the sound is generated in three steps. For the first “digital” step, the sound machines are controlled by a PLC (programmable logic controller). In the second step, pneumatic components cause the strings to vibrate by either plucking them like a guitarist or stroking them like a string musician. In the third step, the sound is received and amplified by electronic pick-ups, similarly to an electric guitar. The sound machines offer a variety of options for generating very different musical effects.

Watch the video here.
(I am especially interested in the very short clip of the drum machine. I wish that portion was longer.)

Click here to download a detailed informational PDF.