Paul Smith and typewriter art
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
Paul Smith was an artist who had cerebral palsy and used a typewriter to “draw.” Using a machine like a typewriter makes perfect sense when one has spasticity in one’s hands but thinking about how these drawings were made boggles the mind. Yes, typewriters used monofonts (typefaces where each letter was equal in width) so Paul could count the way a knitter counts columns and rows but still, the detail in his drawings is spectacular given the crudeness of his tools.
He made all of his drawings with these symbols (shifted number keys on a typewriter and computer):
@ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _
Here’s a better gallery of his typewriter art.
[via David Niemeijer]
