Asemic Writing for Mail-Artists

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Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 12, 2011 at 9:26pm

Thanks, SH - as for true confessions: Cheryl and I started the group equally together. I ended up with this dangerous thing of these powers you have to control various aspects of the group - that's really Ruud Janssen's domain as ultimate moderator for IUOMA. And what an extraordinary job he does!!! Anyway, during the darkest hours of the Asemic Correctness Mutiny, I actually suspended Cheryl from placing comments - My only excuse is I saw all these comments I thought were really negative... So Cheryl was actually suspended from our group - the only one. But then Cheryl and I debate endlessly about issues and positions via email. And sometimes that's a good place to work these things out - privately. Cheryl and I had a serious go-around over the cultural elitist thing.Yes, the asemic group had the equivalent of a Cuban Missile Crisis. But you know - there were the Monkey Purges and the Sandpo Purges - all that was a bad idea. We learned from that too.

Comment by 1cgqtuoblpeqc on July 12, 2011 at 9:13pm

it was an extremely bad week, as i said, you just happened to be the one to pull the trigger.

 

and although it was an annoyance that i felt estranged for a while after trying to bring my digital asemic writing into the group here, i'm glad things went the way they did, because it gave me a chance to explore whole new areas of my art that i probably would have left behind, with just a "proof of concept" art as my trail.

 

but, i suppose in a good portion of alternate universes, that is how it all went down.

Comment by Marcela Peral on July 12, 2011 at 9:07pm

HI ASEMIC PEOPLE!!! LEARNING A LOT IN THIS WONDERFULL GROUP... MY FIRST ASEMICS ARE TRAVELING NOW. I'LL SEND MORE TODAY... I'M EXPLORING SOME PRINTED ASEMICS, URBAN, EVERYDAY ONES...

IT'S DIFICULT TO ME TO EXPRESS MY OWN IDEAS IN ENGLISH, BUT I AGREE IN THE "OPEN PERSPECTIVE" THAT MAKES ME THINK AND EXPERIMENT.

I'M REALLY IMPRESSED... MAIL ART IS NOT RESTRICTIVE, AND IT MUST BE KEEPT IN THAT WAY!!!

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 12, 2011 at 8:55pm

Hi Nancy, I'm still working through the contention that reared its head in the asemic group. Mail-art, especially at the IUOMA, is such a supportive community, so open to different styles and viewpoints, I guess I was lulled into forgetting that culture "out there" is a battlefield of egos and people openly criticizing each other.

 

Because I've been involved in mail-art projects where none of this emerged, I'm personally concluding it does have something to do with asemic writing outside of mail-art. Mostly, we deal with people who are visual artists. Asemic writers seem to be drawn in from contemporary poetry, which was and, sadly, seems to remain an eternal battleground rather than an eternal network. Ron Silliman on his blog - about the time he shut down his own comment stream out of frustration and disgust - characterized poetry as "a contact sport" and reminded folks that even Dante's "Divine Comedy" was a way of settling scores with poets Dante didn't like. 

 

The mail-art network has supported things like concrete poetry and visual poetry for decades; some of that comes a similar support that has always been found in Fluxus. Our exploration of these things in the network makes perfect sense. But mail-art has been largely an underground network, a well-kept secret impervious to cultural storms above. The web makes that less so. Anyone can peer in and find what you're doing. That's generally good, because we're better able to find kindred spirits more easily - but you can also find yourself in the middle of arguments or debates going on in other communities you never knew about or cared about. Some of us have been involved in mail-art before and are more aware that it has its own culture and conventions. I suppose those can always change, but there's something really nice about the network you rarely find anywhere.

 

Ultimately, it seems like most people here just want to do mail-art. I just don't want people to be fearful of posting any kind of work - that would be a horrible tragedy.

 

Yes, I brought Superhero to tears by (jokingly) comparing him to Charles Manson. Manson's infamous interpretation of "Helter Skelter," "Blackbird," and the Beatles' White Album is really a classic question of the limits of personal interpretation, you know? If I decide the White Album is a visionary prediction of a race war based on "Revelations," does that entitle to send my band of Charlie's Angels girlbots out to murder a bunch of people? Is my interpretation an valid as others? But I was kidding and feel bad about bringing SH to tears and his departure from the group. I'm glad he feels like he can come and go now - as the walls aren't real. We're all in this together, IMHO.

Comment by 1cgqtuoblpeqc on July 12, 2011 at 8:20pm

you don't need to do anything nancy!

i'm ok at the moment, i had a really bad week last week,

but even then there's not much you can do.

it's just kind of like a storm, it comes and it goes,

in between is an awful mess.

then i pick up the pieces and carry on.

 

i think its like my zombiesemics, it's all to do with internals.

it all happens in the brain.

 

as for thinking in barcodes,

i don't think brain hackers think in them,

but my armani skateboard chic probably does!

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on July 12, 2011 at 8:13pm

Nothing is harder than that, Superhero, wow -- my heart goes out to you.   I will send you the spirit piece mentioned a whole bunch of comments below if you'd like that.

 

Diane, loving this:  "the brain hackers ... think in bar codes."  Talk about scary!

 

 

Comment by 1cgqtuoblpeqc on July 12, 2011 at 8:09pm

zombiesemics is not asemically correct. ;-)

Comment by 1cgqtuoblpeqc on July 12, 2011 at 7:54pm

diane!!!

i'm just finishing up my collage and almost forgot about the barcode!

thanks for reminding me!!!

Comment by 1cgqtuoblpeqc on July 12, 2011 at 7:53pm

i'm good at taking most discussion with a grain of salt,

but i will warn you i do have moments.

i have a lot on my plate this year since my son died in november.

but i think DVS is the only one mean enough to make me cry. ;-D

Comment by DKeys on July 12, 2011 at 7:44pm

The brain hackers are most definately zombies--maybe even asemic zombies--they think in bar codes

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