Typecasting is a hybrid media format for publishing content on the web, especially in blogs. To typecast means to post an image of a text that has been written using a typewriter machine. The image could be scanned or photographed and appears embedded in a webpage as the body of text of a blog entry. Hence, the typecast is a combination of website with digital text such as title and time stamp, and a digital image of an analogue typed page. The sort of remediation that occurs in the practice of typecasting is curious and surprising. A growing community of typewriter machine collectors are engaging themselves in this kind of format and an emerging “typosphere” seems to be emerging. The content of the format is diverse. For instance, some of the typecasts just refer to the qualities of the machines, such as this text that appeared at the Manual Entry blog on April 21, 2013 and that talked about an Adler special machine:
Other times the content of the typecast deals with the process of getting a machine. An entry from April 20 2013 at the Tiple Clack blog talks about the process of buying a 1950 Remington Ruper Riter:
There also typecast that besides including the typewritten text, also include pictures from typewriter machine catalogs, newspapers or magazines. This entry from I-dream-low-tech blog from April 2, 2013, talks about the Olivetti sidewalk typewriter, 1955, and includes scanned images from LIFE magazine.
Since the typosphere has become a dynamic networked public, there are also some typecast that talk specifically about the interactions of typecasters, such as an entry from To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth… on april 23, 2013, that discusses the next steps on the Revolution of the typosphere,
I personally find the typecasting format fascinating. I love the hybridization of analogue and digital formats. It is like a monster with beauty. The beauty of the typewriter machines can be seen in the typographic marks that are on those analogue pages turned digital by scanners. And then, of course, they are also amplified so much through the world wide web. I will typecast soon. Yes, I will.
