Typewriters
I have to admit i'm fascinated by outmoded technologies. i have a floor scattered with parts of cassette recorders and record players, three non-working desktop apple macs (IIci, 7300/200 and B&W G3) and have paid good money for portable mini/8cm cd players, japanese rangefinder camera's and 80's drum machines.
There's something about both the ease of collecting stuff the majority no longer want and the way these products function as a document of so many things. Production methods, aesthetic choices, technological developments, cultural trends and ergonomic understandings are all contained in their forms.
With the benefit of comparing these items with their successors, so much is revealed.
Reading Daniel Neville's latest post , surely a man who thinks things through more deeply then I, caused me to want to reignite this blog with a random post about all these items.
The difference between the products I've accumulated, and typewriters (i'm never part of the herd. so far beyond that), is that Typewriters have reached a higher level of cult and cool. (i suppose, work with me here) it seems like cliched wayfarer wearing possibly beat poet worshipping teenagers are the ultimate destination for all unloved typewriters. i know i wanted one when i was 15.
for instance this beauty.
I have no idea what it's like to type on a mechanical machine like this, i can only imagine i wouldn't really like it, seeing as i still prefer pen to computer, but writers block would surely be easier to overcome when you get to look at this. I can imagine being a reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Tribune, writing an article on Cigar manufacturing techniques in Cuba, and seeing every thing in black and white. plus there's the added ability to switch between red and black ink, on the fly, which would surely liven up any page, like the fourpen multi-coloured epics of neat handwriting and subheadings and bullet-points of first-week-back-after-holidays school classes.
There's something about both the ease of collecting stuff the majority no longer want and the way these products function as a document of so many things. Production methods, aesthetic choices, technological developments, cultural trends and ergonomic understandings are all contained in their forms.
With the benefit of comparing these items with their successors, so much is revealed.
Reading Daniel Neville's latest post , surely a man who thinks things through more deeply then I, caused me to want to reignite this blog with a random post about all these items.
The difference between the products I've accumulated, and typewriters (i'm never part of the herd. so far beyond that), is that Typewriters have reached a higher level of cult and cool. (i suppose, work with me here) it seems like cliched wayfarer wearing possibly beat poet worshipping teenagers are the ultimate destination for all unloved typewriters. i know i wanted one when i was 15.
for instance this beauty.
I have no idea what it's like to type on a mechanical machine like this, i can only imagine i wouldn't really like it, seeing as i still prefer pen to computer, but writers block would surely be easier to overcome when you get to look at this. I can imagine being a reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Tribune, writing an article on Cigar manufacturing techniques in Cuba, and seeing every thing in black and white. plus there's the added ability to switch between red and black ink, on the fly, which would surely liven up any page, like the fourpen multi-coloured epics of neat handwriting and subheadings and bullet-points of first-week-back-after-holidays school classes.
posted by liam at 11:31 PM
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