To look at things #47 & 48 – Mechanical Translations

This double issue examines the origins of the automation and mechanisation of translation and writing. Issue 47, “Machines, Accents, and Affects,” begins with a machine built by Dr René Marage in the late 19th century. Along with the history of graphic inscription of the voice, a history of our attraction and repulsion to technical objects is revealed. Issue 48, “Electric Letters,” looks at digital computing’s impact on writing by delving into its origins: the treatment of binary code. This transformation emerges in telegraphs and the advent of electricity in the 19th century. Our writings, initially addressed and interpreted by humans, are completed by a code that the machine can manipulate.