Futile Type

Futile Type is a video sculpture.
An old dusty typewriter sits on a table. A person projected on its paper, smoking a cigarette, perhaps contemplating words is waiting for a viewer to type on the machine. Mimicking the levers of the typewriter the projected man's hands blotch his face with ink at the frenzy of the typist. Above his head lines of Pablo Neruda's "Poetry" are appearing.
The viewer can hit the keys. The typing only changes the pace of the content flow. The text is pre-written and the user can not write back. With every keystroke the person on the screen hurts himself further covering his face with ink until he can not breathe. As long as the viewer engages the poem continues the story of writing.

Futile Type uses an Arduino UNO microcontroller with a hand made sensor to identify typing. Max/MSP receives signals from the Arduino to run videos shot on a Canon 5D & edited Final Cut 7.

by Yonatan Ben-Simhon, Ioni Gkliati and Alessandra Villaamil

Presented at NYC Resistor, at ITP Spring Show, New York, 2012 and at קולה של המילה festival, Jerusalem, 2012
Selected as finalist for SXSW interactive awards 2013