An irresistible Aztec 600

And now for something more pleasant ...

I'm reducing my typewriter collection. [Right, Polt.] But sometimes destiny [or lust] strikes like lightning. That happened a couple of weeks ago, when a lovely blue Aztec 600 was going begging on eBay. How could I resist?

It arrived safely (double-boxed, thanks!). It's missing its case, but the typewriter itself is in great shape. I spent a happy couple of hours removing eraser crumbs and old grease, installing a new ribbon, and polishing until there was nothing left to polish. Here it is!

A few years ago I sold this brown 600 to a friend. 

Turns out that the brown one and my new blue one are less than 200 serial numbers apart! Both were made in 1962, the last year of production for this great model (and if you had to pick a final year for the golden age of typewriter manufacturing, 1962 would be a good candidate).

These typewriters are relabeled Rheinmetall KsTs. (The name Aztec was used for East German typewriters from various state-controlled factories when they were exported to the US. Aztec 500 = Erika 10 without tabulator, Aztec 600 = Rheinmetall KsT, Aztec 700 = Erika 10 with tabulator, Aztec 800 = Erika 20 or Groma Combina, Aztec 900 = Rheinmetall GS, Aztec 14 = Erika 14, Aztec 15 = Erika 15.)

I've had the opportunity to enjoy several Rheinmetalls in my collecting history (just portables, no standards). The portable is an ingenious invention based on the 1926-1930 Stoewer KsM portable. Under the Rheinmetall name, production lasted from 1931 to 1962. That's quite a successful run! You can see examples of Rheinmetall portables and KsTs on the Typewriter Database, and here is a history of postwar KsTs. 

The carriage comes off with a flip of two levers and a little jiggling—no tools required. This makes cleaning and service a cinch. The platen of the KsT is also easy to remove (unscrew the knobs). It has a light carriage shift, a quiet return, a pretty slim profile, and nice styling. 

Can a typewriter do this?

My decidedly anti-AI friends won't like this post and may wish to skip it.

As you may have noticed, I am very ambivalent about the technology. It seems to demean human creativity, burns through energy recklessly, enables new forms of deception and control ... but it also unleashes remarkable new avenues for a kind of creativity that collaborates with collective memory.

The best AI image generator, Midjourney, just released a video generation system that yields very impressive results. What's the next step? The company says:

... we believe the inevitable destination of this technology are models capable of real-time open-world simulations. 

What’s that? Basically; imagine an AI system that generates imagery in real-time. You can command it to move around in 3D space, the environments and characters also move, and you can interact with everything.

An old dream of creating a real dream, now becoming real.

You can make a video from an image you've uploaded or generated with a text prompt. The video can be extended (currently) up to four times in segments of a few seconds, generated either purely by the AI or in collaboration with your instructions. This gives ordinary mortals the power to assemble a little movie that illustrates their ideas.

Here's a mini-film I made. I wanted to start with a creepy atmosphere. My prompt for an image was:

A scene inspired by a story from the bizarre cult classic The King in Yellow. A small deformed man secretly controls the actions of distant victims. This is a retro vision of a bygone future. The style of the scene is low-saturation, low contrast, sickly colors, inspiring an undefinable anxiety.

Midjourney generates results in sets of four, so you can select the one you like best (or start all over again). I picked this one.

But it didn't feel just right, so I asked the AI to create variations on the image, and I selected this one.

Then I used it as the basis for assembling this video:

We've entered a new era, for better and worse.

So, to get back to the official theme of this blog: Can a typewriter do this?

No.

However, there are at least two interesting possibilities for high-low-tech collaboration here. 

1. Brainstorm at the typewriter, letting your words run free, until some sequences of visions appears in verbal form on the paper. Then give those words to the AI and see how it "imagines" them. Tweak the results until they satisfy you.

2. Start by making an AI video, then sit at the typewriter and describe it, finding the best words to evoke the specificities that have emerged in the film.

Whatever the evils of AI, I am sure that creative people in our community are going to find new forms of digital-analog interaction that will stimulate new thoughts and emotions.