Cut and Paste, Scissors and Glue. Or Tape.

How does one simulate a simulation? Copy, cut and paste. These phrases are so embedded in the lingo of word-processing computer programs that it can be difficult to decontextualize them. Or recontextualize them, depending on your perspective. This experiment begins with a paragraph, about 4″ of justified text, Times New Roman 12pt in Microsoft Word. The ramblings about cut and paste are almost of no consequence. To print, to cut, to paste, and to discover: that is my intended process. I’ll try to bring back the physical and kinetic implications of the tools I have come to rely on through the convenience of a word processor.

The source material:

Copy and Paste. Invaluable tools of the modern writer. The modern writer and user of basic, easily accessible, user-friendly software. Only a simulation of a kinetic act. To cut and to paste. To disassemble and reassemble. Is there more of a story there? What can we find when looking at the cut and paste. Icons mark the actions. Small scissors are ready to chop the words to bits. To allow them to be scrambled in the nether land behind the screen. Lost in the black box. The paste offer a clipboard and a sheet of paper. Organized, logical, returning the piece to normal. But you, the modern writer and user of the program, are limited. Your words are removed and reappear like magic, but the page remains intact. The white screen, the simulation of the blank page that has daunted humanity for decades, does not fall prey to the ravenous edge of the scissors. This text, however, will. Something will emerge, something beyond the story I am telling you now. The computer, printer, paper, scissors, glue and tape will all play their part in the composition. Even the surface where the flitting pieces of paper will fall in line. To copy, cut and paste. Few phrases conjure such distinct images of digital work processes, yet such the words are anything but reliant on the screen. In contrast, they bring us to the physical. They enter my life through tools. They remind me that I am human and the computer, right in front of me, is merely simulating the tasks I can do with my own hands. So now we print. I let the words erupt.