A typewriter artist focused on the new Guinness World Record with a two -meter drawing of the London skyline as he hoped to encourage others to give the machine a “second life”.
James Cook, 25, from Braintree, Essex, is hoping to achieve the Guinness World Record for the largest drawing made with a typewriter – a record first of its kind and one he made a custom application.
The piece, which ended on June 17, took about two months – equivalent to nearly 300 hours – of typing.
Mr Cook told the PA news agency that the Guinness World Record attempt happened through a commission for a couple who wanted him to complete a panoramic drawing of the London skyline.
“I said it was going to be a real challenge because it’s going to be my biggest picture so far,” he said.
“If I’m going to do something on this scale, it makes sense to try and see if there’s a record that currently represents something as left -handed and niche as typewriter art.”
He submitted a custom application to Guinness World Records (GWR) on May 12 and was given a pending date in the verification attempt on August 10.
Mr Cook said he searched for the largest drawing on a typewriter and “nothing came out”, so he submitted an application to the GWR website, where he proposed the record title of ‘largest drawing made with a typewriter’ and included detail what the art will look like. , how long before doing and some background on his typewriting credentials.
“I’m going to come to them with something that probably hasn’t been convicted before and they’ll probably want to visit in person to determine if it can get that record,” he added.
He said there were some logistics issues on the road due to the size of the image.
“I had to rent a van to pick up the drawing from the framers that framed it, because it didn’t fit in an ordinary car,” he said.
“We don’t yet know if it will go into the elevator to give to the customer who lives on the 27th floor of an apartment.”
Mr Cook added that his work contains half a million typewritten marks, which people enjoy playing the Where’s Wally puzzle.
“People enjoy almost playing Where’s Wally with typed artwork, spending five to 10 minutes just to find every possible piece of information they can find in the art and that’s a rare thing to find in contemporary art, ”he said. .
He said he downloaded a sound recording app to find out how many types of marks were made, which “worked up to 175,000 marks, the app crashed on me and timed out”.
He encouraged novice typewriter artists to “talk to grandparents,” possibly with a typewriter lying around.
“The possibility is that if they have a typewriter, it’s just sitting around collecting dust and you can give it a second life,” he added.
Mr Cook will showcase his Guinness World Record attempt at his exhibit from July 15 to August 7 at two venues – the Wonky Wheel Gallery in Finchingfield and The Moot Hall in Maldon, both in Essex.
