Type Liberation Project
Phase 1
As technology has changed in the past fifty years, the value of letterpress type has changed as well. There is an abundance of metal type and fewer printers who use it. As old letterpress shops close, it is often more valuable to sell the letters as "scrap metal" than it is to find letterpress printers wiling to buy the type. I was interested in finding out about what has been happening with this old scrap metal and researching this online when I discovered that at-home ammunition makers find the foundry type metal ideal for their bullet making. As a writer, I found the idea of taking words and letters and turning them into bullets barbaric. We should use words and letters and writing to stop physical violence, not become part of it! The Type Liberation Project is a way to resist.
In October 2012, I ordered ten pounds of the assorted foundry type. After sorting the type by size and by font (and organizing it alphabetically) I printed the letters onto a 12 x 20 sheet of paper. For more about the genesis of the project, click here.
On November 15, 2012, at a stop on the Improbable Places Poetry Tour, broadsides were handed out to writers willing to help.
I want the writers to have as much license as they need to create the work, so I won't give instructions what to do with the printed version of the letters or the PDF below. Some writers have talked about creating a new line at every break or new font. Others, choosing less constraint, have decided to use any available letter. The level of constraint and restriction is up to each individual. My hope is that some writers will choose to write directly on the broadside. Others will type the final poem and send it in an email. These are all possible. The important thing is doing the work.
In the meantime, if you do have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
The text on the broadside and in the image below gets VERY small. I recommend downloading the PDF. It's a much clearer image and one that allows you to zoom in. If you're interested in the acquiring a printed broadside (either a copy to write on or a more finely printed version that is ideal for framing!), please send me an email.
As technology has changed in the past fifty years, the value of letterpress type has changed as well. There is an abundance of metal type and fewer printers who use it. As old letterpress shops close, it is often more valuable to sell the letters as "scrap metal" than it is to find letterpress printers wiling to buy the type. I was interested in finding out about what has been happening with this old scrap metal and researching this online when I discovered that at-home ammunition makers find the foundry type metal ideal for their bullet making. As a writer, I found the idea of taking words and letters and turning them into bullets barbaric. We should use words and letters and writing to stop physical violence, not become part of it! The Type Liberation Project is a way to resist.
In October 2012, I ordered ten pounds of the assorted foundry type. After sorting the type by size and by font (and organizing it alphabetically) I printed the letters onto a 12 x 20 sheet of paper. For more about the genesis of the project, click here.
On November 15, 2012, at a stop on the Improbable Places Poetry Tour, broadsides were handed out to writers willing to help.
I want the writers to have as much license as they need to create the work, so I won't give instructions what to do with the printed version of the letters or the PDF below. Some writers have talked about creating a new line at every break or new font. Others, choosing less constraint, have decided to use any available letter. The level of constraint and restriction is up to each individual. My hope is that some writers will choose to write directly on the broadside. Others will type the final poem and send it in an email. These are all possible. The important thing is doing the work.
In the meantime, if you do have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
The text on the broadside and in the image below gets VERY small. I recommend downloading the PDF. It's a much clearer image and one that allows you to zoom in. If you're interested in the acquiring a printed broadside (either a copy to write on or a more finely printed version that is ideal for framing!), please send me an email.
| tlppdf.pdf |
Phase 2
In this latest phase (2021) of the Type Liberation Project, Hugo is printing broadsides of the Bill of Rights – THE sacred document for many Americans – using additional bulk purchases of type reclaimed from the hands of bullet makers. This mission seems more urgent than ever, as the far-right communities associated with the American Militia Movement who exalt the Second Amendment right to bear arms above all others, move from the shadowy fringes ever-closer to the center of political discourse and action, leading racist, xenophobic marches in public squares, taking it upon themselves to violently suppress Black Lives Matter Protests, and most recently, to stage an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. The thirty pounds of type used here could make the equivalent of 3,400 rounds of bullets for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
At its core, this project is a performance. The final printed document is a witness to the buying, sorting, reading, and making of meaning as the type ran out and substitutions and replacements had to be made. The type that arrived consists of many typefaces and sizes all mixed together. Certain rules for this phase of the project were generated over time, including:
1. Once an individual letter gets used, it cannot be moved and used again. The galley trays are part of the final project.
2. Use the largest possible type at the top of the document (as in the original 1789 Bill of Rights).
3. Type size must be consistent on each line and in each paragraph (wherever possible).
4. Leave blanks and substitutions when letters of a given size run out.
5. When it is clear that there are not enough letters of a particular size to make the next paragraph at all intelligible, move down to the next smallest size.
6. At the end, the left-over type will, like it was in TLP – phase 1, be given to an audience which will be encouraged to create their own expressions from these “scraps.”
