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.
What does innovation sound like? For a century, typewriters chattered an evolving story
Director: Ignacio Uriarte

videoHistory of technology
The last day of hot metal press before computers come in at The New York Times
29 minutes

videoSocial psychology
‘My God! Where’s the human voice?’ A charming reflection on our pre-recorded world
3 minutes

videoComputing and artificial intelligence
A jazzy 1972 history of the computer, from the designers Charles and Ray Eames
10 minutes
videoInformation and communication
The ‘father of information theory’, Claude Shannon brought us our digital world
6 minutes

videoHistory
How the vocoder went from military tech to an instrument of the counterculture
11 minutes

videoMusic
Watch as the rhythms of traffic create a mesmerising score
2 minutes

videoMusic
Before the Beatles dropped acid, a BBC workshop was creating far-out sounds
6 minutes

videoDesign and fashion
Household items are reborn in a ‘visual symphony of everyday objects’
11 minutes

videoInformation and communication
A classic film on communication finds renewed meaning in the age of memes and emojis
22 minutes