Asemic Writing for Mail-Artists

Asemic writing for mail-artists

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  • yes, received my specks yesterday.
    the animals / insects are really cool looking!
  • prettylily

    Nancy, Welcome!   De Villo has a great eye for spotting Asemics.  I looked at your 3 piece collage photos.  Love the simplicity of them.  It's always a challenge to me to pare down anything and I really admire people that can.

  • prettylily

    Can't wait to get to the PO tomorrow.  I'm hoping for more chapters of the #2 book.

    So many different approaches.  This has been a great experience! 

  • Nancy Bell Scott

    Prettylily, paring down can be difficult, that's for sure.   That's why I have to really work at it sometimes . . . Thank you.
  • De Villo Sloan

    Answering Svetlana's earlier question: Asemics 16 is not being shown in Rome, to my knowledge. Cheryl and I coordinated another book here at the IUOMA before this. It was called Project 26. It was based on letters of the alphabet. It had visual poetry, collage, all sorts of things. Alfonso Filieri put it on exhibit in Rome. He is an outstanding book artist. He is participating in Asemics 16 too. So I was talking about something else.

     

    Svetlana, just so I don't clog up the stream further - the Asemics 16 concept is posted in various parts of the thread. I'll answer any specific questions you have.

  • cheryl penn

    These books will go on exhibition in South Africa next year as DVS knows - so, we are looking forward to completion of this project.  DVS is right - Project 26 was on exhibition in Rome - and it due to be exhibited in Argentina at the end of the year (Rosa Gravino).  Here's to hoping Monday is a full on Asemics Receipt Day.  Hope you're all having a FAB Sunday!

    :-) X 

  • De Villo Sloan

    Thanks Cheryl, participants, of course, can do anything they want with their books. With Project 26, editions have found their way into exhibits, blog posts, who knows... And - I'll write an introduction - as I did for Project 26 - that explains the concept etc. etc. I especially want to write the intro in response to the asemic Correctness that has reared its little pit bull head. That should help.
  • cheryl penn

    DVS - I'm looking forward to the Introduction - somehow, everything comes together with that.
  • De Villo Sloan

    Wouldn't miss it. And I do mean this seriously - I think some of Superhero's various mini-manifestos about asemic writing are better than the iron fist of the Asemically Correct. The Asemically Correct, BTW, are not here with us on this little island of freedom. Freedom does require constant vigilance.
  • Nancy Bell Scott

    What or who is the asemically correct?  If you could describe it briefly.  Being new at this (and in love), I'm trying to educate myself (also briefly, in the hope of avoiding learning asemic correctness).
  • Cecil Touchon

    For Asemic activity please follow these simple rules...

     

    Friznigiot scuship snish nillop bri tognitp, snoom ofn griengst 'jnulft zytunproct ouch. Mstoofinesnich ooon juibgune otchic quackpl blasjnique uginoon ock. Plastipsnicromatical tionatic loznnupstal klag na blineup stnie ushtin eicfon stuggel shnip sphblopnee. Pfnicnnel apnei jeeb uoshokc bonicnee oogl schnogl bery cosnifpher blodnst ooroosch. Frumpel fricston nillich nybonguna blunk. Oudeckh confluntion ardllid il lardiskin flauncl xicaniscan tolu tolunkn gniouisnun iignu fluun fla i cump kublunnuma. Nouiiuoness tonnoont flaup confronflabert blick. Frinee fooken qunukhe hopniw totzl cog gleamal wquesch ni qua blopsal flomp scitch. Ignasnal stitschen bagnic si clomble istnatic wascuillazal sa dwadwal egilajuicate abnal sconch, ugadoolin istich sconfag frobe. Grognalary stebrinatic smuncle scun webghisten withnin quastrec tac sta bluoghstertaian er klorst scoptey smughch pu a bluck. Xadert cvidft niueo, "Ai querstdasic zawqui. Kopluder vasfawe gi ishnatation!" Flagnal onderosp: cognigation, confropnatation ya cabstinaration. Osprernas vaginsal derbastsion quasterdafnal hopstnif os derpamal zxaffers wrettnsaxxid qux plugfliffer flichghflugbul sa i blug stawdervate ploiyfrsin materflaven polyphysflottic zresternach wes rseatd bnavnesderation pol ved i bovdertate xneascited anteticfal cax ghenoberst phsylevaswery di sa ferg , basdijestaw zighnast quo: verdaferanal. Zascerted styjugnal frumpler polysfes- tanered qualigisters nad derspafer flunch stadfer werfagn grapplwaf clong fik conkle prutster steachenful vestrocing dryghwer plouifaes klipz qued fronk masniston alfebner clasprenical fruggas pernoch illik asple vlep.oogle bugoomwe vernerstaclewinsterfloopen, sdolliueoitoor bcassferi tarrighk quisreadstveekly wa blooga doogasterblot nya stilllirsted. Jasdfert bilokerty mnassferytio casd quirteraspirnt vi deasd nlieajjoffert mosdtghfphysol aw awsderity wertyudfghnmaoibcgop lollolloilluil noij nloppoig, nisteredacticasple fliebispal spugnuglug a nuy ytretic splagle. scerblungkiin alflerblettic bloasdtered cir verghster werrerrewewly zasferniffquisian preblunker dongflistic postilis moism. Mukluukosterfed flibbstriffer snopns vefferighshchst r biliffwery wertyupilok mlij'liopu wefghjoppillop zaffertolley spoppenstfer diffnicnolt vedderblopple spaalt non-moskwaique comlpafferves cer trew asdfert koplijuhy comtfop abaquistic.

  • Nancy Bell Scott

    All righty, then!   Got it.   Though you might have sent it to me in writing.
  • De Villo Sloan

    I could quibble over some of the terminology and references, but I think Cecil answered your question better than I could.
  • Nancy Bell Scott

    Yes, he was most eloquent and brief in his non-brevity.
  • De Villo Sloan

    Cheryl? I believe it was the entire book.
  • De Villo Sloan

    I think Helen Amyes did something with P 26 in Australia too. I suppose we should keep track - for people who want to know where their work appeared.
  • cheryl penn

    Hello :-) - Alfonso showed the whole book - but it was unbound. There is a link in the collaborative books group. I will bring it up for you :-) X
  • De Villo Sloan

    Thanks CP-SA - Cecil wrote the definitive definition of asemic practice further down the thread. An instant classic.
  • MaryAnne

    Two more instalments of 16/1 arrived last week and I have put up scans of the envelopes as usual.
    The first of mine went out last week.
  • cheryl penn

    Thanks Angie :-( - did not know it was tomorrow - thought it was done.  So, yip, mail art for David coming up - thanks for update X
  • Victoria Barvenko

    Hello) My Asemic Books #3-16. Cheryl has sent today the first party with books by mail, has wished them happy journey)))) хх
  • cheryl penn

    Victoria - FAB!!!! :-) - looking forward to getting :-) X
  • Victoria Barvenko

    Cheryl thanks)) I am happy)))
  • Mim Golub Scalin

    We are off to NYC tomorrow but will get a card off to David. Thanks did posting. Rest of my pieces will be finished & sent next week.


  • anonymous asemic mao
  • De Villo Sloan

    For the fourth time - welcome Superhero to Asemic Writing for Mail-Artists. Love the Mao. Looks almost like asemic add-and-pass, hmm... idea. Thanks.
  • De Villo Sloan

    Victoria - thank you for your friendship! Thanks for posting your chapter.
  • i wonder how many times it would take for you to stop counting now.
  • anyways, you're off by one already! :-O
  • De Villo Sloan

    SH, it's just that... when they do leave (and how could anyone leave such a happy and harmonious bunch?) they tend to disappear without a trace.
  • oh, i'm not like that.

    i follow it even when i'm not active member.

    i just need to re-join to post the great asemics i get! ;-)

  • De Villo Sloan

    SH, the posts are appreciated. You're finding some interesting stuff. And you do have to manage your vast network of projects. One of them was turning into a regular crack house.
  • Heather Miller

    mine are all done and dusted!! hope you all receive them soon. and love them!! much pressure to come up to scratch!! ha ha
  • Victoria Barvenko

    О_о, Angie&Snooky, thanks big for the comment)) are pleasant to me that is pleasant to you))) it's best))))
  • you can make one to send me heather.

    i'll love it, promise!

  • Victoria Barvenko

    DVS, to you thanks)) at you excellent projects and me very much are pleasant to participate in your projects))
  • De Villo Sloan

    Thank you for your adoration of me and my projects, Victoria. I am pleased you are involved. I like to occasionally acknowledge all the "little people" who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make all this possible.
  • Nancy Bell Scott

    DVS, friendly warning:  I am sending you my first conscious asemic piece today, started a few days ago and finished last night.

    Last night I also had a blast completing some black and white works started a couple of years ago.  They've been searching for completion and a purpose, and Sharon Silverman's Black & White Project is the perfect destination, I hope.  They were completed with ... asemic writing.

    Superhero, your asemic history is rather spotty, I see, but you sound hungry for it, so you too will receive a piece.  It doesn't include zombies (sorry -- guess they worry me too much, they are all over my town), but it does include a "spirit," not the religious kind but a kind I end up doing often, which is foggy and represents every individual spirit in our realm, including spirits involved in trees and also non-living objects that I consider creatures nevertheless.  Ok?

  • De Villo Sloan

    Yes, Sharon Silverman's black & white project is so cool! I'm a fan already. 

     

    Nancy Scott Bell - I'm looking forward to seeing how you are approaching this. I just hope everyone can get past thinking asemic writing is some scary thing to approach. A few basic concepts is all, and even then, kids do it with crayons everyday without even concepts.

     

    Superhero does have a very interesting position on asemic writing. He posted it somewhere around here. I've certainly thought about what he wrote a great deal.

  • Nancy Bell Scott

    Superhero has "a position" on asemic writing?  I've got to see it and will search around for it.

    It is slightly scary to take a first step, DVS, but not in the usual sense.  I mean, asemic writing was showing up at times in my art long ago, so this first piece wasn't like jumping off a cliff.  But never having really focused on it, I'm already seeing that because I love it I will probably do it a lot, and so it's already evolving somewhat even in these early days.  For you to have the very first of it is humbling and yes, a little scary (though not as scary as zombies).  You know, maybe the B&W ones done later in the night are more effective or something, I have no idea, so that's the scary part.  But not a big deal.  Of course, writing this much about it in this comment puts the lie to any bravery trying to show itself here!  Slap. Onward ...

  • De Villo Sloan

    Nancy, you raise so many interesting ideas... I want to eventually do a rant on asemic writing and the automatic writing of the surrealists. Like speaking in tongues, there's probably a whole visionary aspect of this we haven't explored.

     

    Yes, some people have "positions." For several months, this group has been a been a tremendous learning experience. We have veterans like John Bennett and Cecil Touchon who have done their best to share their work and knowledge. Most of us, however, are learning. There were two incidents on these threads that might be fairly called rankerous.

     

    (1) The Trashpo War - Cheryl and I never considered found art had any role whatsoever in asemic writing, just clueless. John Bennett showed some fascinating pieces made of plywood on asphalt - man, that was an eye opener. And some of the trashpo people started posting things they found in the street and asking if it was asemic writing. Well, all that opened minds. And, you know, we have DK here who have really moved Trashpo forward, so I was going to take it all very seriously.

     

    (2) Mutiny of the Asemically Correct: Then we did have that thing where people were coming down hard on other people, saying the work wasn't asemic, saying the whole project wasn't really asemic, just not what I personally believed was in the spirit of mail-art. It was a few, but there's the one bad apple theory, right?Because, ultimately, this is mail-art and not a graduate seminar. I'm into commentary that is descriptive, not prescriptive. This morphed over into claims of cultural elitism and Dark wall's creation of A.C.E. - Academy of Cultural Elitists elsewhere. Somewhere in there Superhero did post at least one of his asemic positions. As I understand, it asemic writing is entirely subjective - according to what I think he wrote. Makes you think, anyway. So at one point I actually shut the group down until we could get past the back-biting. Things seem to be back on track now. In favor of total disclosure, that's what happened. You know, this deletist/expulsion thing, it's something that never should be resorted too. But collaboration requires some degree of compromise or at least mutual acceptance.

     

    I think a loose consensus has been reached in the group and we're moving forward. What really matters - the art being created - who could deny folks here are doing SPECTACULAR things. More than you wanted know, that's what you get from me.

  • De Villo Sloan

    And - to get past this whole thing - Superhero deserves vindication because he was a victim of Asemic Correctness, not an instigator. Some purists have a problem when visual poetry and asemic writing become too friendly, apparently. This is probably my ignorance not understanding. I proclaim again: I'm learning too.
  • digital asemic writing:

    1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
    0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0
    0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
    1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
    1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0

  • De Villo Sloan

    Yip, Superhero is our Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" - the poster child proclaiming our openness and acceptance
  • my viewpoint is that asemics is a state of mind, an internal state, not an external one.

    the art is inside you, and it is all perspective. something can be completely "meaningful" to one person, yet totally aesthetic to someone else, all depending on context of the viewer.

     

    that's my view in a nutshell.

    DVS has a work concerning this on its way to him.

     

    i think the work explains it well by tying asemics to quantum physics.

    just like there is classic physics, which explains the "normal," "macro" world-view, we have classic art; art that is easily understood and comprehended because it follows the rules of past generations. but the entire world view has shifted in light of major technological and social reforms over the past 100 years or so, and we need new rules just like physics needs new laws. we have to change our perspectives of art, and how we view it.

     

    asemics, and art in general is quite relative.

    and even further than art and physics,

    life itself is completely subjective.

     

  • prettylily

    Welcome back, Superhero! 

  • DKeys

    Great foil beanies SH.
    Asemics are that they are.
    SH flies in and out because he refuses to be contained--not to asemics or anything else!
  • diane, that piece was my #3 and went to clouded, who has kind of dropped out of MA for the most part (sadly). she sent a few rat drawings near the start of summer break, but i haven't heard much from her since. she also submitted a digital work when i started working on digitals myself.

     

    hi prettylily, zombipedia pages heading your way.

     

    DVS: never thought of myself as much of a poster child. not until Val started SMARTSIS at least.

     

  • Nancy Bell Scott

    It is not more than I want to know, DVS, though a lot to take in, so I'm still absorbing your and superhero's excellent descriptive comments.  It's all fascinating, and those rancorous episodes probably couldn't be avoided because of the mix of the "meaningful" and the "aesthetic," as superhero aptly termed text content and visual.

    Let me say for now that, although new, I like and agree with the asemic (and life) philosophy/outlook/approach you both describe so well.

    Also, in case my teasing remark about superhero's asemic group participation sounding "spotty" was taken seriously, I in no way meant it as a slam.  It was just in fun because of your own teasing exchange earlier today about flying in and out, but since the rancor was recent I probably shouldn't chance that stuff now -- I wouldn't know if something pushes a sore button, so I'm sorry about that.

    Thanks for everything here, including today's great explanations.

  • DKeys

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