Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 2: Modern Era (1850–1949)

1878

Remington Releases the Standard Number 2 Typewriter

Invention

Remington Releases the Standard Number 2 Typewriter
Wikipedia. 2023. "E. Remington and Sons." Wikimedia Foundation. Last modified May 5, 2023. en.wikipedia.org.

One of the world’s first commercially successful typewriters, the Remington and Sons Standard Number 2 typewriter featured a QWERTY keyboard, which it helped to establish as the standard to this day. Its introduction revolutionized written communication. The typewriter would allow and inspire artists to create intricate, repetitive and pattern-based compositions through typed characters, offering a precursor to the digital generative art of today. The typewriter’s influence on artistic expression, particularly in the realms of concrete poetry and text-based art, helped shape the trajectory of generative art by introducing the concept of using machines and rules to generate visually striking and conceptually layered compositions.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.

Sources

Movements

computer art, Computer Text, digital art, generative art, Generative Poetry

Filed under

Ideas
Computer Text, concrete poetry, digital art, generative art, Generative Poetry, Material Generative Art, mechanization, pattern, rules, text-based art, typography
Technologies
computer art, QWERTY, Remington Standard No. 2, Remington Standard Number 2 typewriter, typewriter
Works
Standard
Organisations
E. Remington and Sons

Echoes across time

Le Random editorials

Explore all Le Random editorials and artist interviews

Le Random podcast