Received from De Villo Sloan, USA--Q for Bifidus

[Bifidus Jones]

Asemic poetry exists as an apparition of traditional poetry. The beauty of it is that while there is no language "to read" it still retains the sense of text and meaning. The controversial Marshall McLuhan, in his 1962 book, The Gutenberg Galaxy, predicted a post-literate society where reading and writing will no longer be necessary. I see De Villo's piece as post-literate because I know his mind is deep and wide and his asemic poetry is a reflection of all that and he's moved it forward. He has created his own symbol/pattern and combined it with the pre-existing and recognizable letter Q, which I think is a courteous gesture for me, the viewer. My brain likes to make sense of what I look at, and it balances the asemic writing. De Villo's sense of aesthetic intuition and personal imagination make this piece a success. If there is a specific meaning to it, I don't know know what it is; I concede it doesn't matter. I just like to look at it. And I'm a little excited because this piece got me thinking about how to use asemic writing in my own work. Thanks much for this piece, D

[De Villo Sloan]

Great thoughts on asemic writing. I want to add that what I'm doing and even the reason why I'm attempting to work in this area again is my discovery of Litsa Spathi's Fluxus Poetics - her concept extends the idea of what a poem is to the act of creation itself: what you are doing when you create your poem is part of the piece - integrating life and art far more than we ordinarily think about. Not expalined well, but have a look at it for yourself. It's as important to me as discovering more about haptics and asemics. Cheryl, personally I think it's OK to do anything you want with color in asemic writing. I know a lot of asemic writing is b&w. In the worst case, you'll get labeled for creating an asemic/vispo hybrid, which could be positive. And as far as I'm concerned - vispo, concrete poetry, asemics, haptics - they always have been a part of an are intertwined w/ mail-art.

[cheryl penn]

Great blog for great work. Four things 1 - how would the approach of an artist be different to the approach of a poet/writer to asemic writing? 2 - the inclusion of a semi-recognizable glyph - q - yes, but maybe not, is that in any way related to a work like Codex Seraphinianus where the inclusion of known visual language reads into A content - maybe??? 3 - I find De Villo's color use very interesting - it makes his work gentle giving the appearance of 'text' just hovering on the paper - it appears not to have settled into the grain (unconsciously denoting the BEGINNING of his journey?) and 4) YET there is a palimpsestic quality to the writing - its GREAT! O dear!! De Villo - so many more questions than answers!
I leave you this to illustrate my point on color use vs color use, floating vs embedding and conscious palimpsest-ing:

[Karen Champlin]

I've been doing asemics since I was a kid. I enjoyed it the way kids enjoy coloring. When I use the written word in my photograph pieces, It's purely there to deliver the message. All emotional...no aesthetic value. I Have done some works with a single word plus some asemics. But I must tell you all, I have decided to go very deep into asemics and Haptic poetry. My work is going to change dramatically. I feel very driven. Can't describe how intense this feels.

[De Villo Sloan]

I appreciate how nice everybody is being about this. I have a long way to go with asemic writing.
Katerina - I love the new profile. And I thought it looked like Arabic too. I don't have much control with the stamps yet so it's an accident unless I'm channeling.
Marie- I'm using a thick art paper intended for watercolor - it holds the ink well and the color seems to pop - on more complex pieces like this I'll use more than one color.
Feedback is certainly helpful. Thanks all

[Marie Wintzer]

Is it a coarse type of paper to reach this texture?
As Cheryl would say, lucky Bifidus.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Almost oriental, Japanese or Chinese characters...or Arabic callligraphic markings...they dance!

[Karen Champlin]

Each mark looks textured. So beautiful, grainy...that's it!

[Marie Wintzer]

I have been wondering what DVS was up to after his holes in the paper, and this is the first work I came across with. Very elegant, I really like it.

[De Villo Sloan]

Bifidus, this is incredibly thoughtful of you. Your explanation of asemic writing is so clear and articulate - better than I could manage at this time - and captures exactly what I had in mind when I sent this "note" to you. I can't add much to what you've written except to assure you and anyone else there is no encoded message or riddle to solve. I'm using letters - via stamps - so you still find the ghost of the alphabet here - even if distorted and fragmented. Thanks to Mehrl Bennett especially, I understand that where I come from is concrete poetry. So there are some echos of that too. Geof Huth's vispo, for instance, often focuses on partial or fractured letters and words. I also sent Marie Wintzer an asemic haiku too - it looks like a haiku on the page. You expanded even further by raising the issue of what the role of writing will be in a post-literate society. I'm new to the asemic and still figuring out how to do it - so my stuff will evolve, as is the work of others. I wish asemic and haptic fell easily into the art-for-everyone category I love so much, but alas. I get more questions about this than anything. And I know you are fielding haptic questions too. It is fantastic to have this explained somewhere because once you get the concept, then it is easy. I'm certainly glad you received my "note." And I would sure like to hear Karen weigh in on what she's doing because, man, sometimes it seems like she's ahead of us all.

[Bifidus Jones]

Asemic writing exists in your pieces as well Karen, correct? but you also include text and words which can be identified and read. Do either of you care to elaborate on using the combination of asemic and traditional text in your work, versus using only one or the other?