Asemic Writing for Mail-Artists

AND --- from an 'artist' who can't draw [YOB, fike] there are some filters for Filter Forge which offer automatic asemic scribbling. I will 'mess' widdem and report back.

Fike, some of the most "highly regarded" visual poets - apparently including you - are very skeptical about asemic writing as a genre. Most prefer to see it as another brand of vispo

So in this group we have always been very open to anyone's views on the subject. (JMB was posting broken sticks for a while.) And a lot of vispo appears here that has a preoccupation with written language and meaning.

So your point is well taken. To render something "meaningless" is a tall order indeed, I agree. Some of the invented glyphs and scripts we see here can't be "read" in a conventional way. I will say that.

Please share what you discover running things through filters. I know both Jim Leftwich and I use (at least sometimes) a process of deconstructing existing text into ruins and then reconstructing into something new.

Thx Fike

Ficus strangulensis. I have to ask you. Is it my pictures, you are talking about, or is it a completely different conversation?

Dear Grethe.

I was making a general statement and did not have your recent posting in mind when I wrote it. I guess I was making two points. One, that meaning is in the eye of the beholder like seeing a horse in the clouds and the other that people talk about an absence when the thing that can be measured [meaning or hazard] is only implied by speaking of its opposite.

I find your pieces attractive and pretty good imitations of handwritten text.

Y'r [new] ol' Bud,

Fike

Ficus strangulensis messes with a poem by John M. Bennett

I am contemplating, probably for a long time: "that people talk about an absence when the thing that can be measured [meaning or hazard] is only implied by speaking of its opposite."

The messed-with piece is great, I think

03.11.15 Dare John M.Bennett, ..."Ficus Strangulensis messes with a poem by John M. Bennett."  ...but John, you do that sort of thing all the time & encourage others to do it.  ... well,  I will have to admit that it  looks pretty good & is always of interest. Ave uh nez dae. Richard Canard

I've blogged some image-text work from visual poet Carl Baker (Canada).

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/digital-mail-art-by-ca...

An erasure / lune with "asemic" writing in blue ink.

Welcome to Henry Denander. Wow! It's an honor to have you in our humble group.

I received asemic work (among other things) from Ruud Janssen. Many thanks!

Full documentation of the Ruud Janssen work can be found here:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-fluxus-word-asemic...

Group member Marcela Peral (Argentina) sent me some interesting work. Marcela was very active here during the collaborative book projects. Great to hear from her. Thx!

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/asemic-vispo-by-marcel...

Congratulations go out to group member Mick Boyle who has had a great piece featured on Michael Jacobson's New-Postliterates: Gallery of Asemic Writing blog. I believe this is Mick's first appearance there.

http://thenewpostliterate.blogspot.com/2015/11/puppeted-by-mick-boy...

Moan Lisa sent me some new asemic pieces. Moan has also announced the formation of an Asemic Writing Workshop that can be accessed via Facebook. All that's documented in the blog below:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/moan-lisa-establishes-...

Moan Lisa has been a member of our group, but I don't think is a member currently. Moan Lisa has some strong theories about asemics that have, at times, clashed with other members. Moan is always welcome to return, as far as I am concerned.

asemic? Looks so to me. Can you guess from whence It cometh?

it says "Ficus"

Before the term "asemic" it was sometimes called "bad handwriting."

Those are certainly interesting comments. If they're meant to apply to my image below, that's not the hidden meaning nor the source. But interesting! Anyone else have a guess as to the parentage of the 'bad handwriting'?

hieer  -  from there?

No but I can 'see it'.

eh - I still see "Ficus"!!

Wellllllll, I believe that you are creating that particular meaning.

I'll wait a while to see if anyone else has comments and then reveal the process which led to the image.

hah - well of course that's exactly what reading is: creating one's own meaning from what one sees ("reads") -

Starting to look to me like a piece of string or thread

a piece of string coughed up by the cat

OOOOOOOOOOH! Nice!

It's the middle of the process by which we meat tubes convert food to the other stuff.

hah!  so it IS sorta like something coughed up by the cat!

Wait. So it's words on paper being digested in someone's stomach and intestines? What?

Those are interesting constructions. -- and -- Put it on the paper, Cat! -- and -- Yes!

I wonder how "asemic" - - - - to - - - - "a semic"'d turn out.

The image below, "asemic" has no imparted meaning [assumption based on it's parentage, the kmahjong game running on ubuntu 12.04] but it's full of hints, Br = bromine, QSL = ham talk, HDD = abbrev. for hard disk drive, RR = railroad, more?

YOB, Fike

BF3 = boron trifluoride; WORN; ROW; MU; HOY; OH; CQ; FBR [_qv_ @GOOGLE]; GQ [twice, Gentleman's Quarterly]

Now i understabd, espec. the boron ham talk!

'SHAT CEES OILS' --or-- 'SNOT SEES OIL'?

yes, exactly more or less and more

04.12.15 Dare De Villo Sloan & Ficus s., ....sorry, I still don't get it..... but wish I did (John M. B. always a step ahead of me as well-- said the" boron trifle") ... What I do see is a sense of order  & a sense of mystery ( & a patient willingness to offer a detailed explanation [be it earnest or even more convoluted]---what more can one do?). ... what I' d probably do if I had access to a set of electronic building blocks is just dump 'em in the bottom of the box, label it "Asemic", giggle & walk away. I do in fact enjoy viewing the works of Ficus stangulensis, John M. Bennett  & this asemic writing blog.....more, more , more &  best to all concerned. Richard Canard

"WHAT SEES OIL"

"label it asemic, giggle, and walk away" strikes a chord. Esp if that 'giggle' refers to a feeling of 'now let's see what they make of THIS!'

That we are so fortunate as to have Ficus & John Bennett discoursing upon asemics in our humble group is, is, near historic, I think.

But, Richard, you're not going to find much linear or textbook in this disrupted discourse proving the existence of a 37th dimension rather than the question of whether or not a symbol might actually mean something or at least something it was intended to mean. Let alone whether it is possible for a symbol to be meaningless.

Here, I think the dialectic means more than the meaning of the dialectic.

Richard, I know you have a great art background in the glory days of the mid-2oth century. To understand asemics, consider or re-consider:

http://www.cytwombly.info/

Lord, this is a black hole. You need a symbol to signify nothing, emptiness. Thus the symbol signifies something.

by Ficus-Cheryl Penn. I blogged this at M-L because I felt it was asemic.

Arab mathematicians 'invented' zero so we'd have an answer for 1-1.

Asemic correspondence from Henry Denander (Stockholm, Sweden). Thanks!

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/asemic-correspondence-...