(Carriage) Return of the Typewriter

Some weird and wonderful stuff here using the now obsolete typewriter. As I wrote in my old blog (see here), the last typewriter factory finally shut in April 2011. So what use now for these lumbering pre-digital mechanical behemoths? How about some art?

Artist Tyree Callaghan has taken an old 1937 Underwood Standard typewriter and made it into a Chromatic Typewriter with each key delivering a smack of colour to the paper. 'The piece was intended to be purely conceptual but, if the paint could be automatically applied somehow, it could be feasible. As it stands, the keys have to be manually reloaded', he explains. 'The way typewriters are designed leaves a bit of white space between the characters. In this case, however, the typing leaves a bit of white space between each colour and the effect is sort of like a blocky pointillism.'

Perhaps, if it all gets too much, he could seek some solace from this form of typewriter:

This is Morskoiboy's extraordinary drinks mixing typewriter. You simply type in the codes for the ingredients you want e.g. L-Lime, A-Apple, K-Kahlua, J-Jagermeister etc. and the selections mix with pure alcohol before exiting the machine via a tap.

Here's an excellent little video showing it being assembled and used:



Visit the artist's sites - Tyree Callaghan is here and Morskoiboy is here.