Lace Ciphers (Typewriter Drawing)

Created using the process of 'pattern writing' on an Olivetti Lettera 22 mechanical typewriter.

"I had been aware of and inspired by the concrete poetry movement, and as a writer, I was thinking about ways in which I could combine writing and visual art for a while. It was only by chance that one day I found an old Silver Reed typewriter in a charity shop. I bought the machine, took it home, and it sat in the corner of my studio space for some months before I tried to use it.

When I did, the keys were a bit clogged and the ink was dry, so there was no typing to be had from it. Through a bit of frustration and some luck, I began to experiment with holding a pen in place while I typed and moved the platen roller up and down. I immediately recognised that I had a rudimentary mechanical plotting system sitting right in front of me.

The idea of having a hand-operated mechanical plotter in the age of expensive and sophisticated electronic plotters amused me. From then on, I set out to explore ways in which to develop techniques for mimicking processes and algorithms. Even after nearly three years of using this technique, I am still finding new patterns and systems.

I haven’t considered working with a plotter because I am fascinated by what happens when I try to 'become' the program and think like an algorithm. By casting myself as an iterative loop and obeying the discreet instructions of a program, I become aware of certain features and processes that are usually inaccessible. I can experience the iterations, interactions, and repetitions of a program in 'human time' rather than at the hyper-accelerated rate of computational time, where those processes have become abstracted and hidden within an enterprise of invisible electronic interactions. When I attempt to think (and type) like an algorithm, I enter into an internal machine-like monologue and become the looped-I-am."

– Paul Prudence, December 2023

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