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A simple plan

2007, Sound Installation

ZKM Karlsruhe

The installation refers to Bartleby the Scribe, (1853) a novel character by Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick.

Bertleby evaded his employer’s orders with the words “I would prefer not to.”

On a table is an electric typewriter, a pile of paper, a lamp. The electric typewriter produces typing sounds as if it were being operated by a ghostly hand. From the invisibly installed loudspeakers in the room, a murmur of wind can be heard, which, however, does not carry the paper push away.