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Technology Is
technology is
nail polish clothing buttons
holy water dispensers
milk cartons punch
cards robots lamination
plastic roller skates margarine
manure spreaders alphabet
toilet paper wheel suspension
bridge carpet mill thermometer
numbers eyeglasses polyester
lettuce spinner brick typewriter
money crossbow rubber pottery
horseshoe plough agriculture phonograph
glass airplane arch
elevator adding machine
refrigeration electricity glue concrete
radio radar microwave
paper map sail
zipper stop light
incandescent bulbs batteries
gun windmill automobile
engine television clock
shoes clothing penicillan
ball point pen gear answering machine
rocket walkie talkie
light emitting diodes automatic
hat yo yo matches paper clip
scissors post it notes computer software
pencil bleach swing mandolin
cimitar flannel compass blast furnace [End Page 240]
"Technology Is" is part of a series of Word Drawings that I began in 2004, when I became interested in "publishing" text on walls. These drawings have allowed me not only to notice the ways in which people respond to text differently when it is perceived primarily as a visual object but also to explore the spatial relationships between words and the spatial aspects of signification. The drawings can be read either horizontally or vertically and signify in unique ways depending on the reading path selected. This project also continues my ongoing exploration of the sentence as a unit of language, its unique energies, its boundaries, as well as its propensity to disintegrate under certain conditions.
Most of the drawings begin with a topic or point of departure, as was the case with "Technology Is," which relates to my research into how to begin defining—and thinking about—technology. [End Page 241]
Johannah Rodgers has been living and writing in Brooklyn, New York, for the past thirteen years. Her book sentences, a collection of short stories, essays, and drawings, was published by Red Dust in 2007. Her short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Fence, Bookforum, Fiction, CHAIN Arts, Pierogi Press, and the Brooklyn Rail, where she is a contributing editor. Currently, she is teaching writing at the City University of New York, where she is an assistant professor of English.
