Monotype is a casting system for moveable metal type using a keyboard, punch-tape and matrix (mould). Patented in 1885, this revolutionary technology greatly improved the speed and often quality, of typesetting for Letterpress printing. Due to the complexity of the Monotype system, it is almost impossible to take a punch-tape from an unknown printing house and decode the text which has been encoded onto it. There are approximately 30,000 possible arrangements of the moulds which correspond to the holes punched in the tape according to the needs of the job at hand.
Inspired by these encrypted patterns of binary holes, this custom software application maps and transcodes the language of mechanical typesetting into musical space. The software reads input text and implements various mappings including the numbers associated with traditional ‘lay of the case’, frequency of letter use, word aggregates. Ultimately these numbers are used to generate pitches and durations of notes as MIDI events which are used to trigger external synthesisers. Letters and words become sounds and spaces are silence. Texts with varying typeset details express their inner musicality – body copy rhythm, poetic meter and structure.
This work was created in Processing using the MIDIbus Library and would not be possible without the generous support of the Open Source community.

This project was created as an output of the Visible Word, Design School Research Cluster.

Exhibited as part of The Visible Word 2. New Glasgow Society, 4-5th September 2023