Working on defining the final prototype machine which will write the text just as the humans will. 

We'll attach the 3D printed hand on the machine so it becomes a mixture of humanity and very technological stuff. These texts will be analyzed with the book: Handboek der grafologie en grafotherapie. 

Our experiments on the frees. We've tried to engrave two of our alfabets in plexiglas. We thought of braille when we did this. All our experiments are aimed at different kinds of perceiving your handwriting. So with these engravings you can feel them as braille or you can place a blank piece of paper on top of it and scratch with a pencil so the letter becomes visible. With this you can write a note in a different way. 

The other experiment we did was to put a pencil in the frees. The first pencil couldn't handle the pressure and broke, the letters are not that beautiful but that's okay. A balpen worked better because it rolls much easier on the paper. This is the same we tried with the plotter. A machine which writes our handwriting over and over again. This is the start for our machine we want to build.

Why is this relevant?

Through these experiments of findings ways to perceive handwriting in different ways we got an insight is all the possibilities and the richness of handwriting. The combinations we made with a human and a machine were fascinating because the machines got a little bit of humanity through our handwriting. And we think that it's important that our handwriting evolves but does not lose its identity. So this is relevant because we want to keep the handwriting but adjust it to the times we're living in. Cause everything which stays behind will be forgotten and replaced. 

Different types of handwriting from Robin. 

Written in different kinds of mood, years and environment. So we could see how your handwriting gets influenced by surroundings and age. A handwriting is almost like a digital typefont, you have these different examples of the same font: italic, bold, thin, regular etc. We discovered the same with a handwriting.

Why is this relevant?

Through this experiment we realized that handwriting is so personal because you as a person gets influenced by your environment, age, if you are in a hurry and so on. And this influences how you write at that moment. A typefont is designed and this will be the same forever in all circumstances. 

We digitalized different types of our handwriting such as fast, precise, only big letters. So we could see that a person has not only one type of handwriting but more, depending on the environment and mood. We both choose a type and brought it to the lasercutter. We adjusted some letters such as the A so the inside wouldn't fall out when we cut it. Now it becomes a stencil where you can put your pencil through an duplicate your own handwriting over and over again. 

Why is this relevant?
In the future handwriting will be pushed away through typing, you see it nowadays with mobile phones and laptops. Typing is easier and faster than writing. Almost everyone has a digital device with them where they can type on, but no one hardly have paper and a pen with them. When a person hardly ever write anymore they forget how it works and handwriting will become unreadable due the lack of practice. So we made a stencil with our own handwriting so you can put a pencil through it and duplicate every letter in your handwriting when it was still nice and readable. So it won't disappear in the future.

Jon's plotter

We hadden nog steeds ons illustrator document waar we beide een zin hebben geschreven op een tablet. Deze tekst hebben we via een kleine plotter met behulp van een fineliner opnieuw geschreven. Exact dezelfde tekst geproduceerd maar dan met pen en papier. Het is bizar om te zien hoe een machine jou handschrift schrijft.

Waarom is dit relevant?
Het zien van een machine wat jou handschrift schrijft zonder dat je zelf een pen aan hoeft te raken was fascinerend om te zien. Op deze manier projecteer je een beetje menselijkheid in die machine en ga je het zien als een niet meer koud apparaat maar meer dan dat. De machine wordt menselijker en jou handschrift zal eeuwig op deze manier bestaan zonder verdere invloed van de mens. Het wordt dus iets digitaler. Op deze manier combineer je de uitwerking van beide soorten tekst met elkaar.