SMASH TYPE

SMASH TYPE: A Living Typewriter

SMASH TYPE is a social sculpture, a collection of performing objects powered by an audience to generate poetry.

SMASH TYPE begins with this question:

If you could join a living typewriter, which key would you be?

Participants choose a letter of the alphabet, a number, or a punctuation mark. When a participant makes this choice, he or she is cast as this character for the duration of the SMASH TYPE performance. A participant is invited to explore the physicality of this character. How does letter J move in space? How does number 4 greet other numbers? How does a comma dress?

Once the typewriter is cast, each participant receives a SMASH TYPE hammer, a personalized performing object used to stamp his or her character onto a surface. Armed with SMASH TYPE hammers, participants navigate the social, political, and artistic diversity within the typewriter ensemble to collaboratively create poetic messages in space.