I'm published in a book! Typewriter Art: A Modern Anthology by Barrie Tullett, Laurence King Publishing

The title of this post pretty much says it all but I'm still over the moon that I'm featured in a book put together by my former University Lecturer, Barrie Tullett. 

Last year I received an email asking if I'd like to be in the book, and of course I felt extremely honoured to be asked. After a few problems with knowing if it could be featured or not, I received confirmation that it would in fact be published in the book in May 2014. 

Lo and behold, I bought the book from Laurence King Publishing and was over the moon when it arrived - just in time for the beautiful bank holiday!

So here we are, the book I'm featured in by Barrie Tullett...

(If you are interested in buying the book, buy it directly from Laurence King Publishing as then the lovely author receives royalties.)

Nice one. So chuffed!

Tues 22 April 2014 - The Metro - Barrie Tullett 'A Modern Anthology of Typewriter Art'

So on Tuesday, it was the first day back to work after a long bank holiday weekend. The tube and overground lines were playing up. As if getting up at 6:30am wasn't hard enough I had to take an alternative route into work.

However, I was soon smiling when I was reading the Metro on my phone and I saw a name that I recognised, my former university tutor, Barrie Tullett.

He was featured in the Metro because he's complied a book named 'A Modern Anthology of Typewriter Art' and I extremely honoured to say that I'm featured in this book which is going to be published by Laurence King Publishing which is released next month.

Read the article here: Barrie's Tullett's article in the Metro

An Anthology of Typewriter Art by Barrie Tullet (2)

In a previous post which you can read here I talked about the book in the making 'An Anthology of Typewrite Art by Barrie Tullet' which I have been selected to be featured in.

Well, I literally (and very belatedly) found this post that Barrie himself wrote on his blog on The Caseroom Press, which you can read by clicking the link below here.

Have a little read about his beginnings of the book ~

ISTD | White Noise | 4′33″

For the ISTD awards this year I chose the brief 4′33″ (4 Minutes 33 Seconds) composed by John Cage.  4′33″ is an inspiring three-movement composition. The piece is a silent piece, which consists of three movements. The idea was that although the piece was silent, you can in fact never be silent; no matter how hard we try. We are always breathing, moving and there is always background noise. The piece purports to consist of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, although it is commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence"


I saw huge potential in this brief which is exactly why I chose it. 

Research showed me that white noise can be a very uncomfortable and eerie sound, which can also involve ghostly sounds and voices. This is exactly the reason why I chose it to include in my work. The idea behind my piece is that you read the distorted text whilst listening to the white noise. 

The piece has an extract of Don Delillo’s ‘White Noise’. The extract is of a man talking about great men who have died and how they probably did not fear death. The man and his wife then go on to argue about who should die first because they love each other so much neither of them could live without one another.

When listening to the 4 Minutes 33 Seconds whilst reading the distorted text, your mind is open to interpretation of you what you hear and read. Therefore, when each individual reads and listens, each experience will be different and unique.

All this type was produced using my typewriter featured here. 

Typewriter!

I took photos of my new typewriter but then completely forgot to upload them!

My tutor told me about this typewriter for sale in a charity shop, it just needed the ribbon changing- and it was only £20- Bargain!

It's a Daro Erika Typewriter- It's not too old but it smells vintage and old. I've already completed one project on it (photos to come soon) and I have another project which has been chosen for an exhibition- my 'Fish and Man' piece which was created using an Oliver Typewriter.

I wrote a letter to two of my girlfriends Laura and Fran and one to Sam Winston, of whom replied and we had a good old chat- it's worth writing to designers! I'm hoping to go down to London in the New Year to do a placement with him. Check him out, he's fantastic.

(apologies for the out of focus photograph)

It came with the original beautiful leather case, manual and instructions.

My letter to Sam Winston

If you ever get the chance to buy a cheap typewriter- buy one. They make little grifts far more personal and cute. They're gorgeous pieces of machinery, beautifully crafted and made.

Fish and Man- Kurt Schwitters

For this project I was given a story written by Kurt Schwitters. I was to interpret the story and create something to fit inside a ‘Merzbox’. My final outcome was to be of a limited size because the box is a particular size.

With this in mind, I produced two books. One is for the fish, and one is for the man.

The book for both man and fish is made from tissue paper to represent the fragile earth and animals in the story and the typewriter text is to represent the gun in the story and harsh footprints that man leaves on the earth. The story in the 'for man' book gradually becomes distorted as if it is gradually being destroyed.

The book for fish however, has only one word per page. This is because it is said that fish have a 3 second memory, therefore they would not be able to concentrate on more than one word at any one time.  The two books come as a set in a box.

Here is the story;

Once upon a time there was a fish. It swam in the large ocean, moved all the small waves, and splashed about in praise of our Lord.

A man came along and put on a diving suit and sprung right into the middle of the large ocean.

And when the fish saw the man, it thought, “The man is coming, and now there will be no more peace. He’ll eat us.”

So the fish sprang out of the wet ocean onto the dry tent of heaven.

However, it couldn’t fly and almost fell back into the large ocean and almost drowned a miserable death.

Just then a bird flew by and was sailing in the large ocean of air and twittered and cheered and praised our Lord.

So the fish took away the wings from the bird and used them to fly to the firmament and twittered and warbled and rejoiced.

But the bird fell into the ocean and died.

A man came by and saw the fish high up in the air. It was enjoying itself sailing and rejoicing and praising our Lord.

He shot it dead.

Lovely story right?!

The box that both stories are presented in a box

French stab bind was very appropriate for this style of book.

End pages.

Each book makes a dedication- 'for fish'.

The book is quite thick, and because it's made of tissue paper (all hand cut out, all 200 pages!!) it actually sounds like waves in the ocean.

'for man'.

 

Expressive type.

The type becomes destroyed and unreadable.

(I'd also like to add that this piece took me 2 long 12 hour days in the studio. And I kept one sheet (sneeeekily) from the 'for fish' book as a reminder that I can do whatever I put my mind to, because this project was the bain of my life!! But I'm very proud of this particular piece) .