The Typewriter

I’ve just sent this typewriter to Winnipeg which is one of the found pieces for LOOK.  Murray has collaborated by constructing a flow of my words or letters appearing out of it digitally. I’ve shipped it for arrival and Murray’s look over before storing it for about a month, time is unforgiving. Murray and me have collaborated on a series called IN THE TIME ZONE, brought to you by the Abject Alphabet which will pop-up up now and then

First imagined as a field typewriter writing dispatches from the pain room, another name we have for this project. I describe my chronic pain as a disability, harsh enough to use opioids to gain, “fair control,” words finally I heard from my psychiatrist that describe enough relief from pain to be able to work and love with an acceptable amount of pain, though there may always be breakthrough pain from time to time.

Some of the dispatches have been recorded as well as shrapnel, narrative shrapnel as Murray called it when he got a dozen emails in a day. He has several terabytes of the stuff. Not possible to write that many with a field typewriter or find enough paper and inked ribbon. This machine was found in Toronto Typewriter’s online store, posing here in Kelowna and now gone to meet its destiny in Winnipeg.