Typewriter sculptures

August 4, 2008 6:51 PM

I disassemble typewriters and then reassemble them into full-scale, anatomically correct human figures. I do not solder, weld, or glue these assemblages together- the process is entirely cold assembly. {flash, sound}
posted by dobbs (62 comments total)

Absolutely amazing and beautiful. The X on the eyes of the dead cat made me laugh out loud - LOL, if you like.
posted by meech at 6:58 PM on August 4, 2008

Very cool sculptures.

Meh for the Flash.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:59 PM on August 4, 2008

Here's a polite request to all pretentious artiste web designers: leave my browser window the hell alone, thanks.
posted by CaseyB at 7:04 PM on August 4, 2008 [6 favorites]

Yeah, interesting premise, shit GUI.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:06 PM on August 4, 2008

Amazing sculpture!
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:14 PM on August 4, 2008

Heck, the GUI doesn't even work for me. Big blank spaces instead of images.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:17 PM on August 4, 2008

Am I the only one who doesn't see any link?
posted by majikstreet at 7:18 PM on August 4, 2008

Those are incredible sculptures.
posted by Ostara at 7:19 PM on August 4, 2008

So with no solder or glue, how do these stay together? Are there bolts and screws, or twisted wire, or something like that?
posted by Forktine at 7:19 PM on August 4, 2008

Am I the only one who doesn't see any link?

It's in the "I".

These are pretty cool. I like the cat.
posted by jamesonandwater at 7:22 PM on August 4, 2008

=x_x=
posted by fleetmouse at 7:23 PM on August 4, 2008

very good.... thanks...
posted by HuronBob at 7:23 PM on August 4, 2008

This website makes me want to punch a typewriter in the dick.
posted by basicchannel at 7:26 PM on August 4, 2008 [10 favorites]

majikstreet: *I* also missed it at first. Poor choice on dobbs' part. Cool sculptures!
posted by intermod at 7:27 PM on August 4, 2008

Thanks for the warning on the flash. Not clicking. Get back to me when it's an html page with embedded jpgs. Like an online gallery should be. And tell the dead typewriter cat to get off my lawn.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:31 PM on August 4, 2008

pretty much exactly what everyone has said already... cool art, poor website, wish the link was more obvious... etc.
Not sure if "anatomically correct human figures" is strictly accurate, just cause some of them have boob-like projections doesn't mean they are "anatomically correct", just as ascii porn is not "anatomically correct".

but, again, cool sculptures.
posted by edgeways at 7:34 PM on August 4, 2008

Wow. Fantastic. But 2nding the question about how the bits are held together.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:48 PM on August 4, 2008

Thanks for the warning on the flash. Not clicking. Get back to me when it's an html page with embedded jpgs.

Seriously? Get off the internet and take a day trip, man. Giving up on some potentially interesting stuff because it will cause you a minor inconvenience as you use your web browser is one of the first symptoms of Taking This Shit Way Too Seriously (check it out in the DSM-IV).

That was some great sculpture. It takes the right sort of eye to look at something as boxy and unassuming as a typewriter and get the hunch that it can be re-arranged so beautifully.
posted by invitapriore at 7:56 PM on August 4, 2008 [4 favorites]

Neat!
posted by darkstar at 7:58 PM on August 4, 2008

You also resized my browser window, you self-inflated bastard.

Cool stuff, though. (Just not cool enough for you to fill my Cinema Display.)

On preview: agree with CaseyB.
posted by supercres at 7:59 PM on August 4, 2008

Here's a polite request to all pretentious artiste web designers: leave my browser window the hell alone, thanks.

Agreed. My love for those sculptures is overcome by my annoyance of a website that resizes my freakin' browser for no reason, since one of the great things about Flash is that is scales to whatever size window it's in! So let it!! I hate feeling petty, but instead of leaving the site with a good feeling of having seen something awesome, I leave annoyed as I resize my browser again. I'm sure this isn't what you intend, Awesome Artist, so bear it in mind.

End of rant. Thanks for the post, dobbs, those are awesome sculptures.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:01 PM on August 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

invitapriore: Seriously?

I would have thought that the "off my lawn" quip would your question.
posted by supercres at 8:03 PM on August 4, 2008

That's MUCH better than my idea, which was to disassemble anatomically correct human figures and then reassemble them into full-scale typewriters.

In fact, now that I think about it, my idea was terrible.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:04 PM on August 4, 2008 [10 favorites]

In fact, now that I think about it, my idea was terrible.

The keys would definitely stick.

Great sculptures - would have looked at them all but I got frustrated with the interface.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 8:09 PM on August 4, 2008

Neat stuff!

Now someone's gonna have to figure out how to put spring clockwork gears in it and make it dance!
posted by porpoise at 8:11 PM on August 4, 2008

I hope its head falls off.
posted by breath at 8:19 PM on August 4, 2008

You guys all know you can turn off javascript resizing your browser (for firefox, anyway)

As a result, I am not angry at this site! I liked it!
posted by aubilenon at 8:33 PM on August 4, 2008

Very cool sculptures!

But yes, bad interface. And I didn't even get my window re-sized (FF FTW).
posted by gemmy at 8:42 PM on August 4, 2008

You guys all know you can turn off javascript resizing your browser (for firefox, anyway)

I already had that turned off but that only makes it mildly better. This interface is truly complete garbage. It's almost enough to overshadow the awesome sculptures.
posted by puke & cry at 8:51 PM on August 4, 2008

Amazing scuptures. Great post!

Fucking hipsters.
posted by optovox at 9:09 PM on August 4, 2008

Oh wow dobbs, those are awesomely elegant, fascinating sculptures. The sitting woman one is great, the cat one too. And they're not just novelty amazing, they really are beautiful.

Here's a link to another way of viewing the sculptures and info about the handsome artist, Jeremy Mayer.

Thanks for the breathtaking visuals. ooohh.
posted by nickyskye at 9:14 PM on August 4, 2008

I don't need your website to be 2560 pixels wide.
posted by autodidact at 9:17 PM on August 4, 2008

Wow, crazy beautiful sculptures, maddeningly distracting interface.
posted by not_on_display at 9:23 PM on August 4, 2008

The artist sent just sent me an email saying that your comments aren't going unheard. The GUI will be worked on.
posted by dobbs at 9:25 PM on August 4, 2008

To those annoyed by the flash: nickyskye's link is a boring, flat page that actually, y'know, works. And wow are those amazing sculptures.
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:26 PM on August 4, 2008

If someone discovered the formula for a drink that would bestow eternal life, but posted it on a site that re-sized your browser, people here would bitch about it.
I dislike laborious flash interfaces and re-sizin' browsers as much as the next person, but we get it...do we need to whinge about it 14 times? (and that's only counting edgeways' double-post as one whinge).

Now back to your regularly scheduled super cool sculptures...
posted by Ziggurat at 9:27 PM on August 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Dammit Dobbs! If I'd known it would actually help encourage the artist to improve their presentation, I wouldn't have whinged about all the whinging.

Back to my room in the basement, I guess.
posted by Ziggurat at 9:29 PM on August 4, 2008

I liked it...
posted by schyler523 at 9:35 PM on August 4, 2008

What is it with artists and their stupid, shitty interfaces for their awesomeness?
posted by dirigibleman at 9:56 PM on August 4, 2008

Doctor, I become enraged when I let scripts resize my browser windows!

Don't do that, then.
posted by flabdablet at 10:04 PM on August 4, 2008

Jeremy Mayer got an A on the "take something apart and reassemble it into something new" assignment of Sculpture 101.

Too bad he got thrown out of school after the Web Design 101 midterm and wasn't able to finish the art course.
posted by gum at 10:13 PM on August 4, 2008

Unbelievable creativity -- who thinks of making people out of typewriters? Seriously good drugs or a seriously creative head or both.

I'm glad I got to see the images, don't care that I had to 'suffer' the 'indignities' involved in seeing them.

Thanx for posting.
posted by dancestoblue at 10:15 PM on August 4, 2008

Hey, look what I found when I did a Google search for "disable browser resizing in firefox"!
posted by delmoi at 10:26 PM on August 4, 2008

The sculpture was cool enough that I didn't notice my browser had been resized until I was done.
posted by Shutter at 10:26 PM on August 4, 2008

I also sculpt, and these make me feel like a clogger who has just seen their first ballet.
posted by zylocomotion at 10:39 PM on August 4, 2008

Mike Libby, who was also in a show at Device gallery, does horribly beautiful things to insects.
posted by zylocomotion at 10:49 PM on August 4, 2008

Amazing. Just amazing.

As far as the browser thing... Jesus, some you act as if it tore your arms off when you clicked the link.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:10 PM on August 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Going by what is on the link nickyskye provided (and thanks for that BTW) I say clever concept but meh as an artwork - doesn't do it for me.

As for 'the browser thing' - some of us are slackers who use the interwebs at work. And many government systems won't view properly with Flash. My loss I know, but there you have it.
posted by Megami at 11:17 PM on August 4, 2008

I love this... fantastic work!
posted by jimstimpson at 12:03 AM on August 5, 2008

Bust II looks like the artist - see nickyskye's link. How did we get along without you nickyskye?
posted by Cranberry at 12:41 AM on August 5, 2008

Oh I'll do flash. If it's done well. If the material is worthy. I like stupid web tricks. They can be fun. The website resets the size of the browser. Me no likey. Nitpicky? Of course! I think I'll live without seeing a couple examples of manual typewriter junk art.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:58 AM on August 5, 2008

wow. i love typewriters. always have. the big, fat, underwoods that sit on a desk, the 'portable' ones that weigh 20 pounds but come in their own cases, the ibm selectric which i always thought of as the cadillac of typewriters ... all of them. always have. i never knew i loved typewriters as anything but typewriters, though. this is beautiful, beautiful stuff. fwiw, i didn't have any problem w/the website--design, execution, whatever--either. but maybe it'd already been changed by the time i saw this.
posted by msconduct at 4:37 AM on August 5, 2008

just cause some of them have boob-like projections doesn't mean they are "anatomically correct",

To be fair, one of them has labia as well. Unfortunately I have no idea how to link directly to the labia.
posted by spicynuts at 6:06 AM on August 5, 2008

To those annoyed by the flash: nickyskye's link is a boring, flat page that actually, y'know, works.

Beware, though, it has Javascript AND Flash AND it tears your mousing arm off.
posted by kingbenny at 6:56 AM on August 5, 2008

I am lucky to feel few regrets about my life. But one that haunts me regularly is the day I discarded the typewriter I used through college. From today's perspective, it was a tabletop symphony of mechanical wonder. Those synchronized flying arms; the delicious thwack given at each touch of a key; the infuriating ever-jamming ribbon that I now miss like an incorrigible offspring who has graduated to a life of their own. Ah, nostalgia - the opiate of the aging.

And: Holy shit, what amazing work Mayer does!
posted by buzzv at 8:02 AM on August 5, 2008

I recently purchased an Olivetti Valentine typewriter. What I quickly realized is that due to IM, Metafilter, email, etc, I now type too fast for the keys on the typewriter. I can't get more than a few letters in before it jams. I have to actively slow down.
posted by spicynuts at 8:32 AM on August 5, 2008

Sculptures: Meh. Flash interface: Yay!!
posted by monospace at 8:38 AM on August 5, 2008

These would make great Doctor Who characters. I imagine that they would make the sound of an old mechanical Underwood when they moved.
posted by quin at 9:29 AM on August 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

spicynuts: Unfortunately I have no idea how to link directly to the labia.

I hear ya. Story of my life, man....
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:47 AM on August 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

"Anatomically correct" might also refer to less titillating sections of bone and musculature that, to my uninformed eye, look pretty snazzy.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 4:50 PM on August 5, 2008

zylocomotion writes "Mike Libby, who was also in a show at Device gallery, does horribly beautiful things to insects."

That is cool. But it isn't an insect. It's an arachnid.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:55 AM on August 6, 2008

(Or perhaps a mecharachnid?)
posted by caution live frogs at 6:55 AM on August 6, 2008