Trycksvärta enligt Hayles

Typewriter keys are directly proportionate to the script they produce.
One keystroke yields one letter,
and striking the key harder produces a darker letter.

The system lends itself to a model of signification
that links signifier to signified in direct correspondence,
for there is a one-to-one relation between the key and the letter it produces.

By contrast, the connection between computer keys and text manipulation is nonproportional and electronic. Display brightness is unrelated to keystroke pressure, and striking a single key can effect massive changes in the entire text.

Interacting with electronic images rather than a materially resistant text,
I absorb through my fingers as well as my mind a model of signification
in which no simple one-to-one correspondence exists
between signifier and signified.

I know kinesthetically as well as conceptually
that the text can be manipulated in ways that would be impossible
if it existed as a material object rather than a visual display.

As I work with the text-as-image,
I instantiate within my body the habitual patterns of movement
that make pattern and randomness more real, more relevant, and more powerful
than presence and absence.