I sent out a series of questions to the writers in the anthology. Their answers will be appearing here in the next few weeks.
David Baptiste Chirot
1. I believe the end pages of the anthology are examples of what you call rubbings. On the web, we can view one fairly similar to it at Madhatters Review , particularly the one entitled "No Place to Move 113." (Admittedly, this is a little awkward, to interview you about an anthology by discussing a piece of work not in it, but it is a way for people to get familiar with the anthology by seeing quality reproductions of works like the ones collected there.) Is Joseph Beuys the man in the center? What is he doing?
Yes, that is Jospeph Beuys with his "clashing cymbals" or perhaps symbols, who knows--either way--
2. The word POEM appears to be written repeatedly, then rubbed so that it is a little obscured. Is this accurate? What do you see as the aesthetic effect?
poem poem poem is writting that way to show that the sounds he is making--you see how the poem is about the size of his extended hands holding the cymbals outwards--in between the clashing s9und-
that means there is an alternation of the physical clash and also the reverberating sounds of the clash in between the cymbals connecting--
so when his arms are outstrecthed you are getting the sound waves coming towards you of
poem
poem
poem
poem
it is the reverberations made visual of the aural sounds traveling through the air igniting over and over with each new clashing-
and building up these resonating waves of reverberations
to me it is a poem as when i see his image i hear it also
what makes this a visual poem to me is that it makes visible the sound aspect--
one sees and hears the poem poem poem waves of the cymbals clashing and the rhythms of beuys as he opes his arms to let the sound waves move outwards the closes them again to detonate the next clash, which has in its wake its sound waves which become part of the ongoing flow of these poem poem poem poem
the visual movement of the letters making the word poem is to "show" this action taking place moving both through time and space--
to me, the moment i saw the beuys image i heard it also so thepome is a notation of what i saw and heard and felt as an action taking place visually verbally and viscerally--
when i make the work the ideas are not "conscious" so to speak but "all at once"--arepsonse immediately with the image--
for e this is definitely a visual poem because one sees beauys rather than it being written--
"Joseph Beuys is crashing cymbals during a talk --or whatever he is doing as i dont know the book that had the foto doesn't see --i mean say!--see and say being for me the same--anything ab the event so i imagine it is one of his talks, lectures--actions--
visually also the poem is shown, not labeled "poem" but the action of the poem is sen via the repeating and moving letters and the fading is due to the size of the paper and also being a way to indicate the fading away of that particular crash's waves of reverberating sounds--just as the next wave is about to go crash again when the cymbals are rejoined by J. Beuys--
it is a visual poem because it is showing visually and also with words and forms as notations of sounds--"in action an 'action'" piece by Beuys-- of Bueys--
as it is taking place, not "after the fact" but "right/write now"--
so that you can "see and hear it and feel it" as you are looking at the image
3. I assume that this is an example of a rubbing. What is the process behind a rubbing? What draws you to it?
the word "poem" is made with letters taken from one of those FIRAND POLICE ALARM" boxes which are especially found on the East Side of Milwaukee and date from the 1920's
for "poem" i used the "po" from "police," then the "e" also from police, then the "m" from alarm--
i work that way a lot since my very first piece i rarely copy words as they are but make a lot of use of fragments, cut off words rearrangements even some times using syllables or letters from two or three different sites--
i have never been drawn to the usual kind of rubbings which since ancient times are the first form of copy art--
that is i rarely make what i call a "straight rubbing" which is just copying the words as they are
i tend to use fragments syllables obliterations etc etc in part to indicate the continual weathering and corrosion and collapsing into another form of words through time affected by bombings fires detonations as well as the wind, water, snow, particles of al kinds weathering and working away at the letters and words out doors and on these pieces i bring home with me too--
4. Where else on the web can we see your work?
there is on you tube and also at
Continental oh Review
a video documentary of me and my work--
and i have a sound/visual piece recorded with the 14 pp visual poem i am sounding--
will send you those , too
a great deal of it both visual poetry written poetry and short stories has appeared in the journal Otoliths, but i wall send a list as is several where this is great as well as at my two blogs
http://davidbaptistechirot.blogspot.com
http://cronacasouversivafeneon.blogspot.com
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
XEROLAGE 32. David-Baptiste chirot –– RUBBEINGS ... XEROLAGE 32. rubBEings. dedicated to GULLEY JIMSON dear. fellow spirit and in love, honor & ...
www.rastko.org.yu/knjizevnost/signalizam/rubbeingsdavidbaptistchirot2.pdf -
David-Baptiste Chirot · POETRY KESSEL-LO POEZIE
El Colonel Smiles Chapbook
Download the El Colonel Smiles Chapbook (.pdf file) (PDF file provided by PK-LP). Author/category: David-Baptiste Chirot | 0 Comments ...
www.vilt.net/kessello/?cat=27 - 87k
“HUNG ER”
Visual Poetry & Text Chapbook in Neotrope 2, 2002
dave baptiste chirot
http://www.brokenboulder.com/neotrope.htm
Interview with Matt Stolte
>1. How do you define visual poetry? Why do you choose topractice it? Do you write in other forms?
I do write in other forms but aside from a few inspired journal entries my writing is not as good.Choice? Let me think....Definition? Let me think.....
>2. One of the latest innovations in visual poetry is 'asemic' writing, where letters are often obscured or indeciperable. Do you write this sort of visual poetry? If so, is it the only visual poetry that you write?What do you see as its value? its shortcomings?
Asemic writing rocks.
3. What media besides print have you incorporated into your visual poetry? (Rubber stamps, actual Gutenberg print, typewriter, paint, various types of collage, sculpture, wood, photocopying, laser printer, computer, and so on)?
Anything!
4.Could you please offer a link to a visual poem of yours that is available on the internet? Could you please comment on what you see the poem doing?
Visit my photostream on flickr - all visual poetry - all
the time!
5.Could you please offer a link to a visual poem, written
by someone else, that particularly interests you? Could you
please comment on why you like it?
There is so much out there - I am fascinated practically
every day.
Interview with John M. Bennett
One look at your homepage at <http://www.johnmbennett.net/ >indicates that you work in a lot of different poetic media: vicual poetry,video poetry, sound poetry, text poetry. What draws you to such a wide variety of media for poetry?Why do you want to be a "video poet", let's say, rather than a filmmaker?
the real reason I'm "drawn" to these various other media is probably too complex and mysterious, based in my psychology and biology, for me to answer. But i can say that I've always experienced language as something that is not confined to a single small area of consciousness. Also, i want to see how language functions in other mind functions/expressive activities, to see what happens, to see what i can learn or how i can grow that way. the term "video poet is not one i've applied to myself, that comes from others, i myself don't attempt to name these activities. tho sometimes it's a sort of shorthand, as in "visual poet" especially. (Actually, i think of ALL poetry is visual (and aural and metaphysical and and and))
Since it is easier for my blog readers to access a work of yours from the internet, rather than from the book itself, I was hoping you could answer some questions about an intriguing piece I came across at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/textimagepoetry/631588716/in/set-72157594560457004/
1. Were your works in the anthology originally in color, as is this piece?
The pieces in the Spidertangle anthology were originally in color, yes.
2. What were the materials and the process you used to create this piece?
The particular piece you chose was made with old wooden type, rubber stamp ink, colored pencils, and calligraphic ink pens
3. When I first look at this piece, I find myself trying to make sense of it in the same way as I do those drawings that can be seen in radically different ways depending on where you focus (i.e., a drawing that could be a young woman with a stunning profile or an old woman looking down.) I don't know the connection between the letters, their forms (or lack thereof), and any possible words. Certainly you anticipate such frustration. What do you see as its value?
I don't experience such things as frustration, but as an enhancement of perceptive experience. that is, what i most enjoy in any art form is a multiplicity of "levels" or layers of meaning/expression, even (and especially) when they may seem in contradiction to each other. I want a work of art to somehow contain or express or be a talisman for the WHOLE of reality and experience, which is certainly proteic and contradictory and complex and inclusive of things we dont even perceive or understand.
4. Is it accurate to say that the top word, in black 'cursive', is "that"? Do the O's, B's, and the C form COB?
It's "that" when you see it as "that". It was "gnat" to me when I wrote it.
O, B, C form COB and BOC and BCO and CBO etc.
5. The "B" in the lower left seems to have imploded, the inner yellow color spilling out. It feels right to me, and seems very 'cool', for lack of another word, but I am at a loss to explain why.
That "B" is more than just "B" - it is a "Being" perhaps, it is alive, it transforms into something else. All language is constantly doing this, it is not at all stable.
6. The two red lines at the upper left and right look like wings.
Wings, smoke, electricity, speech volutes...
7. Could the flat side of the "C" be a bridge, holding up "that" (if, in fact, that is the word)?
Could be a bridge, could be an inverted bowl could be a mouth and so on. It also could be a "C".
8. What do you believe are some aesthetic and possiblyphilosophic possibilities opened by developing a poetics that focuses at the level of the letter?
Letters are beings in a way. They were originally graphic designs or drawings representing something, and that aspect of them is still there and can be utilized and brought forward as part of a work of art. Everything in the world, that is, everything in our multiple consciousnesses is interconnected and organic, there are no firm boundaries between things, except as a practical (but illusory) convenience when we construct a cuotidian modus vivendi.
_________________________________________________
There are more examples of vispo etc on the 2 "flickr" sites in my signature below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beblank
http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/avantwriting/
http://stores.lulu.com/lunabisonteprods
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmehrlbennett
http://johnmbennettpoetry.blogspot.com/
1. How do you define visual poetry?Why do you choose to practice it? Do you
write in other forms?
letters are often obscured or indeciperable.
>Do you write this sort of visual poetry?
>If so, is it the only visual poetry that you write?
>What do you see as its value? its shortcomings?
3. What media besides print have you incorporated into your visual poetry?
(Rubber stamps, actual Gutenberg print, typewriter, paint, various types of
collage, sculpture, wood, photocopying,laser printer, computer, and so on)?
4.Could you please offer a link to a visual poem of yours that is available on
the internet? Could you please comment on what you see the poem doing?
http://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2007/12/mrton-koppny-waves-no.html
The poem's white (erased?) accent is sailing, very quietly, in the small black boat of an opening parenthesis, and under the closing parentheses of some fleecy clouds in motion.
5.Could you please offer a link to a visual poem, written by someone else, that
particularly interests you? Could you please comment on why you like it?
A gift for us? For the horse? It is a puzzle but certainly not an alarming one. It is rather the fulfillment of a promise that I can't understand exactly.
>All art, if is to survive, needs to be supported by some sort of institution or
institutions. Do you see any indication that these sorts of institutions are
forming in the visual poetry field?
>Given that a lot of visual poetry is very amenable to the net, do you believe
that it may be able to flourish without institutional support?
>Do you think visual poetry will still be a viable artistic alternative in 50
years? Do you care if it is?
I have no general answers but the word" institution" brought to my mind my un-institutional organization, The Institute of Broken and Reduced Languages, founded in the mid 90's. It has published, among other things, vispo in print and, some time later, also electronically at Light and Dust. I'd like to go on with it. A serious illness in my family has slowed me down but I have many projects pending… I don't have too many ideas as to what the future might hold in store for vispo 50 years from now. I started writing something that turned out to be "visual poetry" thirty years ago because by the late seventies I'd understood that if I didn't want to give up the faint hope of communicating, I should "get rid" of my mother tongue. So the main source of my way is a deficiency, which makes things simple in some sense.
Interview with Cecil Touchon
1. How do you define visual poetry?Why do you choose to practice it? Do you write in other forms?
There are probably as many definitions of visual poetry as there are visual poets. The longer a visual poet works at this activity the more uniquely his own it becomes and new laws are no doubt discernible. I believe that each medium has its own voice and that one should try to find the right medium for his purposes and a tradition where he feels at home. My visual poetical works are more concerned with exploiting the visual qualities of text to the point that I enlarge the text to roughly the size of roadside billboards and then dissect and reconstruct the letters themselves in order to focus on the relationship of the shapes of the fonts and the negative space around them that is normally ignored when one is reading as opposed to looking. I encourage looking and short circuit the act of reading by making even the letter shape unrecognizable. The letters have normally been so edited that one cannot be sure what letters were originally used. This nullifies internal verbalization while looking at the works. I am more concerned with exploring the archetypal nature of language than the specifics of communication. For this reason I have chosen to remove any vestige of literary possibility from these works so as not to confuse the issue.
2. One of the latest innovations in visual poetry is 'asemic' writing, where letters are often obscured or indeciperable. Do you write this sort of visual poetry? If so, is it the only visual poetry that you write? What do you see as its value? its shortcomings?
Asemicity, I would say is at the root of my visual poetry. While this may be a newly coined term it actually speaks to ancient utterings of mankind and his desire to communicate through images and sound before language became a fully developed conscious activity. The reader is encouraged to view my visual poetry as art more than poetry as I believe art is more primary to human communication that language. My work is intentionally silent in nature. It cannot be uttered. It is said that the mind is the surface of the heart and the heart is the depth of the mind. Language is the domain of the mind and feeling the domain of the heart. My work attempts to articulate that depth where words cannot reach. I think all asemic works are an expression of this idea of reaching into that subtle, inarticulable place within ourselves where language seems an ungainly and unwelcome intruder.
3. What media besides print have you incorporated into your visual poetry? (Rubber stamps, actual Gutenberg print, typewriter, paint, various types of collage, sculpture, wood, photocopying, laser printer, computer, and so on)?
Poets more involved with language than I may find my style difficult to categorize as visual poetry and may prefer to leave it in the realm of art. However, that we have a category called visual poetry and considering that the subject matter of my work is in fact language based though it undermines the use of language, I believe it is reasonable to associate these works with visual poetry even if they have no literary content, tell no story and have no way of verbalizing them. I am exploring, you might say, one of the far edges of poetry where many other poets may fear to tread. I stand, after all, at the edge of the precipice so far as the usefulness of language is concerned.
These poems are constructed rather than written. My work has for many years been based in collage techniques which I also use to constructed more traditional forms of poetry by using various techniques to extract text from the internet via searches often using the title of the poem as the search term. Lines of text are chosen and collected from the results mostly by attraction to this or that phrase and I then carefully construct poems that are abstract and open to multiple
4.Could you please offer a link to a visual poem of yours that is available on the internet? Could you please comment on what you see the poem doing?interpretations.
A link to one of my works at the Poetry Foundation's website: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182435
This work is a good example of my visual poetry that shows how I construct one of these works. One can see the bits of paper with text on them that have been redistributed to create an almost musical composition. The elements of the letters have been used to create a visual flow. Both figure and ground have been shaded to cause the relationships to shift back and forth from foreground to background and back again to foreground. The shading also serves to amplify the visual flow of the work and small bits of black are included here and there almost like punctuation marks. The red printed surface is covered with abrasions to increase the surface interest and texture of the work and to give the surface more presence.
5.Could you please offer a link to a visual poem, written by someone else, that particularly interests you? Could you please comment on why you like it?
A Link to somebody else? Lanny Quarles http://stores.lulu.com/phanero
A visio-linguistic genius. You can't point to any particular example since he is so prolific and his work has such a wide purview. Buy something - he deserves the support. I would say that there is no doubt that his work will have a far reaching influence in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment