A collaboration between the Spanish artist Ignacio Uriarte and the US sound-effects artist Michael Winslow, best known for his roles in the Police Academy film franchise (1984-1994), History of the Typewriter as Recited by Michael Winslow traces 88 years of typewriter sounds, from 1895 to 1983, when the personal computer began rendering the world-changing machines obsolete. Beyond showcasing Winslow’s incredible capacity for impeccable vocal imitation, Uriarte’s film is a time capsule of forgotten, once ubiquitous sounds, and a uniquely creative exploration of the arcana of technological change.
Director: Ignacio Uriarte
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Engineering
How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time
10 minutes
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Environmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
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Social psychology
What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus
18 minutes
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Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
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Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
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Design and fashion
A ceramicist puts her own bawdy spin on the folk language of pottery
14 minutes
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Information and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes