!!! techn010ffspring !!! GLOG POST 0.018-0.019

IG POST 0.019 !!! techn010ffspring !!! [v.8.1] grows [v.8.2] using human-powered energy of women simultaneously biking and reading in combination with an adding machine

Play the interactive game that encourages !!! techn010ffspring !!! [v.8.1] named [American-mothers-and-sisters-Mary-E-Winter-adding-machine-for-typing-pool-assembled-in-engine-department-with-meta-common-knowledge-of-bikers-reading-books-for-25-girl-hours-in-a-pocket-strung-on-a-clothesline] to grow part [v.8.2] named [Margaret-p-golvin-to-pound-clothes-with-lice-in-hair-scurrying-onto-antimicrobial-seat-cover-with-bearings-for-sale] using the human-powered energy of women simultaneously biking and reading in combination with an adding machine

Link to the game: https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1663702











IG POST 0.018 !!! techn010ffspring !!! [v.8.1] [American-mothers-and-sisters-Mary-E-Winter-adding-machine-for-typing-pool-assembled-in-engine-department-with-meta-common-knowledge-of-bikers-reading-books-for-25-girl-hours-in-a-pocket-strung-on-a-clothesline] with part [v.8.2] named [Margaret-p-golvin-to-pound-clothes-with-lice-in-hair-scurrying-onto-antimicrobial-seat-cover-with-bearings-for-sale]

Items included in this !!! techn010ffspring !!! duo include the following: 

Drawing by Kate Greenaway for “Lucy Locket, Lost her Pocket” from 1800s. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/68dc0359-781a-7a41-e040-e00a1806442f 

Photograph from 1942 of “Part of the cowling for one of the motors for a B-25 bomber is assembled in the engine department of North American [Aviation, Inc.]’s Inglewood, Calif., plant“  https://www.loc.gov/item/2017878520/ 

Photograph from 1942 of “American mothers and sisters, like these women at the Douglas Aircraft Company, give important help in producing dependable planes for their men at the front, Long Beach, Calif. Most important of the many types of aircraft made at this plant are the B-17F (“Flying Fortress”) heavy bomber, the A-20 (“Havoc”) assault bomber and the C-47 heavy transport plane for the carrying of troops and cargo”  https://www.loc.gov/item/2017878899/

US Patent 141015A for an “improvement in reels for clothes-lines” by Caroline Rosenthal in 1873. patents.google.com/patent/US141015A 

US Patent 258518 by Mary E. Winter from 1882 for an “adding machine”: patents.google.com/patent/US258518A 

US Patent 202792 by Margaret P. Golvin from 1878 for an “improvement in clothes-pounders” https://patents.google.com/patent/US202792 

US Patent 19342360B2 by Lara D. Calhoun & Ashkan King Aminpour from 2017 for a “Antimicrobial disposable seat cover”. “The present invention is directed to an Antimicrobial Disposable Seat Cover that is made of a material that is light, disposable and biodegradable, but resistant to dust mites, bed bugs, lice, mold, fungi, feces, viruses and bacteria, and a whole host of various microorganisms. “ https://patents.google.com/patent/US10342360B2 

US Patent 967487 by Gertrude Baker from 1909 for a “saleswoman’s pocket”. https://patents.google.com/patent/US967487A 

Link to “Bearings for Sale” image. www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3b27502/ 

Link to the recorded discussion of how the term “girls hours” was coined.  https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/audio/4888-1

Film of women in typing pool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1×1-y_TP8-Q&t=2s

This video really struck me when I first saw it because the smirks (or smiles) of the women suggest a sense of “knowing”. To me, it appears that they are AWARE of the camera and thus aware of their role in creating a representation of their paid and unpaid work (see my terms for aesthetic labor, emotional labor, presentation labor) as typists. They look at the camera with a sense of agency almost despite the fact that they likely had very little agency working in this typing pool. I imagine that they are Breaking the Fourth Wall, “when a character acknowledges their fictionality, by either indirectly or directly addressing the audience”. To me, it appears as if they are sharing with the camera (and audience) the fact that they are aware that they must perform their Presentation, Adornment, labors for the camera. They are aware that the camera, by virtue of making a representation, is not “REAL”. When I watch this, I feel that they are queuing the audience in to the fact that they have a sort of “Meta Common Knowledge” of the types of performance women must enact in their lives during both paid and unpaid labor. Common knowledge is “information that the average, educated reader would accept as reliable without having to look it up.” Meta Common Knowledge is knowing that others know this common knowledge. I believe women have a Meta Common Knowledge of the types of labor that they perform, such as emotional, presentation, aesthetic, responsibility labor. These women, to me, are clueing the audience in that they know that women know that they are performing for this camera.

In an alternate world, typing might allows these women to disembody through writing. They can become what they want through words. when i watch this woman, i feel like she has an awareness of this. i imagine that she is aware that writing and being able to spread writing through the typewriter, gives her a space of disembodiment that can be powerful. it could give women voices. while it doesn’t at this time, the power of spreading the written word could provide space for voices. 

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