The Peculiar Endurance of the Physical
Signature
Why Do We Still Have to Print out Forms, Sign Them, and Scan Them Back In?
Zócalo’s editors are highlighting some of our favorite pieces from the archive. This week: Cybersecurity scholar Josephine Wolff explains why the physical, handwritten signature endures even though few transactions actually require it.
Last summer, an exhibit at the Guggenheim—“The End of Signature” by Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant—used a mechanical autopen to produce identical signatures every 30 seconds. The artwork was inspired by the “decline of handwriting and the dominance of keystrokes and digital communication” and, indeed, there’s no doubt that all our lives involve much …
