“THE TYPEWRITER PROJECT: THE SUBCONSCIOUS OF THE CITY” Exhibition
Pen and Brush
This event has ended.
The Poetry Society of New York (poetrysocietyny.org), producers of The Poetry Brothel (thepoetrybrothel.com) and the New York City Poetry Festival (newyorkcitypoetryfestival.com) are pleased to announce the latest installment of their interactive public arts initiative, THE TYPEWRITER PROJECT: THE SUBCONSCIOUS OF THE CITY. From January 25 to March 7, the Pen + Brush gallery will host a brand new typewriter booth prototype, as part of their Literary Takeover, a six-week winter festival to celebrate female writers and challenge accepted perceptions of the literary canon.
The Typewriter Project, the brainchild of Nicholas Adamski and Stephanie Berger, is a series of interactive literary art installations—small, wooden shelters just big enough for a seat, desk, and typewriter—which invites passersby to join in a citywide linguistic exchange that exists in both the analog and digital realms. Each booth is outfitted with a vintage typewriter, 100-foot long paper scroll, and a custom-built USB typewriter kit, which allows every keystroke to be collected, stored, and posted online for users to read, share, and comment upon. The project is largely inspired by the idea of an Exquisite Corpse, a surrealist writing game in which several authors contribute to one poem. Obviously each entry in The Typewriter Project can be its own distinct lyric, but the assumption is that users will also let themselves be influenced by was written before them on the scroll. Acting as a public, community diary, each scroll will capture something of the sound, narrative, and nuance of a specific corner of the city. The Typewriter

Project’s mission is to investigate, document, and preserve the poetic subconscious of the city while providing a fun and interactive means for the public to engage with poetry.
According to Stephanie Berger, co-creator and CEO of The Poetry Society of New York, “We were so honored and delighted to be approached by Pen + Brush about this installation. Their 122-year track record as a non-profit supporting female writers is just astonishing. We couldn’t be more curious and thrilled about discovering the poetic subconscious of their organization and its gorgeous new gallery space in Flatiron. Presumably it will be a more feminine voice than we’ve heard at previous installations.”
The Typewriter Project’s first installation appeared on Governors Island at the New York City Poetry Festival in July 2014. It has since been exhibited in Tompkins Square Park and STORY, a gallery in Chelsea.
Nicholas Adamski, co-creator and Chief Operating Officer of The Poetry Society of New York, states, “We initially thought of the booth as just shelter for the typewriter in outdoor installations. When we installed at STORY, we simply set up a seat, desk, and the typewriter with its 100-foot scroll and USB capabilities, but something felt like it was missing. The booths create an optimal environment for writing. Even in a gallery in the middle of Flatiron, we want the writers who enter to feel transported. We want them to experience their own private and remote little writing studio. Our latest booth design is completely modular, lightweight, and easily transported. As we’ve received more and more requests for the booth for private events, we realized we needed a more transportable option than our 400-pound original, which was built upstate out of reclaimed wood from an old barn and designed to be durable for prolonged outdoor installations. The new design is a bit more polished, customizable, and portable. We lovingly refer to it as ‘the wedding version’ because it would look so great at a wedding.”
Media
Schedule
from January 25, 2016 to March 07, 2016