Striking Types

The exhibition at the ZKM_Media Lounge is accessible Tuesday–Friday, 11 am–4 pm!

The @-sign was first integrated into the keyboard in 1882, when North American typewriter manufacture, Caligraph, presented Model 2 in the USA. The occasion was a request by North American Association of Stenographers to integrate the @-sign into the keyboard as a commercial abbreviation. With the numerous historical items of Ludwigsburg expert, Lothar K. Friedrich, the exhibition Striking Types documents the evolution of mechanical writing machines from North America and Europe through to the emergence of the PC era. A parallel exhibition by Canadian photographic artist Robert Bean, takes an analytic look at the mechanics and type face of the typewriter that have now vanished from everyday life.