one evening i was walking along hollywood boulevard, nothing much to do. i stopped and looked in the window of a stationery shop.
a mechanized pen was suspended in space in such a way that, as a mechanized roll of paper passed by it, the pen went through the motions of the same penmanship exercises i had learned as a child in the third grade.
centrally placed in the window was an advertisement explaining the mechanical reasons for the perfection of the operation of the suspended mechanical pen.
i was fascinated, for everything was going wrong. the pen was tearing the paper to shreds and splattering ink all over the window and on the advertisement, which, nevertheless, remained legible.
--john cage, from his "lecture on nothing" included in his book silence and recorded with david tudor for the album indeterminacy on smithsonian folkways.an antiquated school desk chair fitted with a machine
that cranks out the signature of the artist.
signature chair by tim hawkinson
"the writer" -pierre jaquet-droz's automaton built between 1768 and 1774.