At the Analog Anthropocene opening exhibit, one of the emergent themes was the tactile nature of analog objects. Our exhibit features photography, and we loved seeing guests gaze at the beautiful photographs taken by our talented collaborating photographers. But we also wanted exhibit guests to get to be movers and makers, not just observers. Movers: dance party! Makers: we brought along the trusty Nikon FE2 Elena bought on Craig’s List during the pandemic (stay tuned to see the photos. Patience, remember?), and Kevin Piotrowski kindly loaned us his 1948 Underwood Rhythm Master typewriter (made in Hartford, Connecticut). He also developed a beautiful and generative prompt: “What portals does a typewriter open?”
What portals does a typewriter open?
The answers are various, mysterious, poetic, wise… and sometimes full of typos. They are unsigned, lovely gifts to the imagined readers. No spell check, no white-out, no #1 key (“but where is number one? i kept looking for it but couldn,t find it…”). Just a ribbon, some ink, a blank page, an invitation. So what are those portals?
“testing. testing. tsting… a void. a jumble of man , no, meaningful combinations. testing…”
“magic.vibes.why did we ever change ?”
“contemplation, error, the past, the moment in the present where we make mistakes, where we live, wwhere we take risks an d don,t know what comes n ext, but we anticipate a reader in the future holding our work, reading it, critiquing it, in another world, maybe it is us. i hope so.”
“For me, the typewriter opens the portals of clarity and control. Its function is singular: it writes. Digital writing options are bundled with web browsers, social media apps and other distractions. The typewriter allows for a direct connection between my brain and words on the page. Bonus that no charging is required!”
“the world is a lomg place with a thousand p ortals, how is one to choose?”
“in s ide the typewriter is a thous a nd i little beings making the mac the little men in the typewriter that make the machine work live i n a tiny portal”
“a memory of a n excellen t ingeborg bachm an n hommage exhibit inn vien na with my s ouls is ter . itwa s spr ecious timeawa yfrom work, fa mily, duties, worr ies. just us . being there. ( there were a lso several typewriters to play with as part of th e exhibit.)”
“THE TYPEWRITER MAKES ME PAUSE AND con sider what I want to commit to a physical d ocument (and take time to remember how to use the device properl y and slowly – not something we do as much in the digital age (and something I seem to be espousing and not practicing at this moment. I learned to type on a machine not much different than this, but I still don,t come to keyboarding naturally. I still prefer the flow of the pen and the scritch scratch (and eraser’) of my pencil.”
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Emerge
E merge fr
“I used to get my manual repa ired /and cleaned at a place in Lincoln Park. One da y I went back to do my seasona l, a nd it wa s a Radio Shack.”
“What would our world bel like if we still created our poetry this way?”
“H ll my nae i n +i don’t kn w how to type lol”
“the typewriter opens a portal into muy pasrt, i g ot my fi rst typ ewriter when i was 16 and started typing my poet y on it. thwe mecha nica l rhythm a nd imperfections a llow me to slow down.”
“It s not what portal opens, wbut what would you achieve without it.”
“hHMM AFTer the pa n demic maybe we s hould be more careful aboou t opening an y portals”
“t wrote my MA thesis on a typwriter–it openen myy life and career.”
Elena Past is Professor of Italian and Acting Dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College. Her current research focuses on Italian cinema and the Environmental Humanities.
This is wonderful!