Scott Howie and Jasper Howie
'Wordnumbers'
2008
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when he grows up.
Pablo Picasso.
I gave my 18 month old son a computer of his own after tiring of his constant demands to do “word numbers” on my laptop. Over a period of two weeks, he typed constantly. It was the first thing he wanted to do when he woke up and often the last thing he wanted to do before he went to bed. Mostly it was random letters, then numbers, then one day he discovered the forward slash and the back slash keys. In an incredibly deliberate and painstakingly slow manner he proceeded to fill line after line with the slashes making a sawtooth pattern. It was a pattern he would return to again over the next few days.
It was such a considered action that it struck me that I was witnessing something very interesting Not in a ‘look how clever junior is’ kind of way, more being present at a moment when a set of neurons fired and he was able (and I don’t think I am pushing this too far) to generate order and pattern according to some newly forming aesthetic.
The deliberate, repeated and continued production of this pattern became our text. Over the last six months Jasper and I have been exploring this pattern and its possibilities to become object, though you (and he) might just think we’ve been playing with blocks.
Scott Howie
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Jasper Howie
Wordnumbers
Scott Howie and Jasper Howie