Aichi Triennale 2019

Successively displayed on 24 methodically arranged monitors are "10-minute last words" collected via the Internet, while a keyboard on a table in the center of the exhibition automatically inputs the according text without human involvement.
This work is based on the "TypeTrace" software that dividual.inc has been developing since 2006. The software can be used for recording and reproducing entire text input processes via a keyboard, including the timing of typing or erasing letters. The sizes of letters vary depending on the time intervals between the input of single words.
Different from the uniformly sized letters one usually encounters in books or on displays, here the writing person's mindset, with aspects of momentum and hesitation, is vividly reflected in the resulting text. Just like authors' handwritten drafts exhibited at museums for example, or correction marks added in the proofreading process provide information in addition to that of the respective text itself, this work makes the viewer aware of the existence of the writing subjects behind the texts.
The experience of writing one's last words is at once also an opportunity to rearrange one's thoughts toward loved ones, and about one's own past and future. New entries are still frequently uploaded to the special website that was set up in order to collect "10-minute last words" for this exhibition.