The Courier Exhibit

The second and third picture below of the projected symbols and letters was puzzling at first when we first walked into the museum exhibit. There was one person on one side of a wall typing on a computer and another person on the other side of the wall typing on a computer. Then it became apparent that they were having a conversation like on AOL Instant Messenger; however, their conversation was not showing up on the projected screen as intelligible English but the conversation was represented by pictures and symbols. We decided to try having a conversation on the computer and it was very interesting to see how the sentence that you typed into the computer was translated to a symbolic language; it was a great game to try to figure out what the other was saying based on these symbols. It was interesting to see how easy it was to communicate in pictures and in other instances it was much more difficult to think differently about these symbols and pictures and translate them in my head into words and sentences, like it was a game of charades. Our conversation became a artwork in itself and it was a nice feeling to consider that we had contributed to the development of the exhibit.
The pictures of the text on the pieces of paper below were part of Lee Etheredge IV's optical art using a typewriter. All the pieces of paper had different designs which were created by manipulating the font size,darkness of the font, spacing, and placement. Many of his artworks are not formulated and he discovers the image only upon completion. He uses the type writer as a mark making tool to bridge between thought and order. When we first entered the exhibit it did not look like much was going on but with a deeper look the artworks sprang to life and we realized the meticulous work that these artists had to put into creating these designs. A majority of these artworks were created using a typewriter and this almost forgotten piece of technology was given a new meaning and a new way to make an impact on language and text through textual art.
I enjoyed this exhibit more than I initially thought I was going to; one just needed to take a deeper look.