usa | text-mode.org

2014-02-10

1970s, 1973, ebcdic, usa.

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ASCII art by Sam Harbison, 1973. It uses a technique called overstriking, when you put characters on top of each other. This was common in typewriter art but was also used on screen for PLATO emoticons. More recently, glitch artists such as Glitchr & Mammifero are interesting examples.

Harbison’s process: 35mm camera -> film -> development -> densitometer -> 9-track magnetic tape -> FORTRAN & EBCDIC -> chain printer with overstriking -> strips of paper -> tape together -> success!

Post updated in 2024. Archived source.

2014-02-02

1930s, julius nelson, typewriter, usa.

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Typewriter works by Julius Nelson in the 1930s. From a good article in The Atlantic. We have more of Nelson.

2014-02-02

1800s, 1890s, typewriter, usa.

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The article The Lost Ancestors of ASCII Art shows works from a typewriter-focused magazine from 1893. The butterfly on the far right has been around the netz for a while, but the middle one (by the same author, Flora Stacey) and the ship (by Frederick Carles) are new to us at least.

2014-02-02

1980s, 1982, advertising, animation, usa.

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New York’s LED Billboard from the movie Koyaanisqatsi by Godfrey Reggio, 1982.

2014-01-31

2000s, 2002, animation, usa.

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Textmode-like effect in the movie Naqoyqatsi: Life as War (2002) by Godfrey Reggio, the third and final film in the Qatsi trilogy.

2014-01-29

1950s, 1957, teletype, usa.

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Weather Teletype Code, 1957.

Weather information was typed on a teletype machine that produced a perforated tape coded with the data, forecast or warning. This tape could then be used on one or more teletype circuits to distribute the information. The image below displays the punchtape code. Many meteorologists and communicators could read this code directly from the tape.

2014-01-29

2000s, 2009, animation, ansi, game, usa.

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