Although I’ve seen it before, I don’t think I’ve posted about The Bible Scribe, a 2007 installation/project by robotlab. The installation itself addresses much larger issues, but the discussion I’ve seen about the project has mostly turned on whether the robotic writing is calligraphy or not. (I’ll spare you the suspense: it’s not.)
A poster on the Ornamental Penmanship list this week claims that because of its precise, beautiful and voluminous work, the robot should be granted Master Penman status. Of course not. The robot is a masterpiece of engineering, but its work is not penmanship and it’s not calligraphy. It’s printing — an unusual and interesting form of printing, but printing nonetheless.