Asemic writing
Asemic writing is a wordless open
In 1997, visual poets Tim Gaze[8] and Jim Leftwich first applied the word asemic to name their quasi-calligraphic writing gestures.[9][10] They then began to distribute them to poetry magazines both online and in print. The authors explored sub-verbal and sub-letteral forms of writing, and textual asemia as a creative option and as an intentional practice. Since the late 1990s, asemic writing has blossomed into a worldwide literary/art movement. It has especially grown in the early part of the 21st century, though there is an acknowledgement of a long and complex history, which precedes the activities of the current asemic movement, especially with regards to abstract calligraphy, wordless writing, and verbal writing damaged beyond the point of legibility. Jim Leftwich has recently stated that an asemic condition of an asemic work is an impossible goal, and that it is not possible to create an art/literary work entirely without meaning. He has begun to use the term "pansemic" too.[11] He also explained (in 2020): "The term 'pansemia' did not replace the term 'asemia' in my thinking (nor did 'pansemic' replace 'asemic'); it merely assisted me in expanding my understanding of the theory and practice of asemic writing".[12] Others such as author Travis Jeppesen have found the term asemic to be problematic because "it seems to infer writing with no meaning."[13]
Styles
Asemic writing exists in many different forms. It is often created with a pen or brush, but can range from being hand drawn in the sand with a stick and documented by photography,
History
Asemic writing occurs in avant-garde literature and art with strong roots in the earliest forms of writing.[20] The history of today's asemic movement stems from two Chinese calligraphers: "crazy" Zhang Xu, a Tang dynasty (c. 800 CE) calligrapher who was famous for creating wild illegible calligraphy, and the younger "drunk" monk Huaisu who also excelled at illegible cursive calligraphy.[21] Japanese calligraphers subsequently expanded upon Chinese abstract calligraphic expression by Hitsuzendō (the way of Zen through brush), allowing their works to move past formal presentation and "breathe with the vitality of eternal experience".
In the 1920s, Man Ray, who was influenced by Dada, created an early work of wordless writing with his poem Paris, Mai 1924.[22] Later in the 1920s, Henri Michaux, who was influenced by Asian calligraphy, Surrealism, and Automatic writing, began to create wordless works such as Alphabet (1925) and Narration (1927).[23] Michaux referred to his calligraphic works as "interior Gestures". The writer and artist Wassily Kandinsky was an early precursor to asemic writing, with his linear piece Indian Story (1931) exemplifying complete textual abstraction.
In the 1950s, there is
A modern example of asemic writing is Luigi Serafini's Codex Seraphinianus (1981). Serafini described the script of the Codex as asemic in a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles held on 8 May 2009.[34] In the 1980s, Chinese artist Xu Bing created Tiānshū, or A Book from the Sky which is a work of books and hanging scrolls on which were printed 4000 hand carved meaningless characters.[35] The 1980s also saw artist Gu Wenda begin the first of a series of projects centered on the invention of meaningless, false Chinese ideograms, depicted as if they were truly old and traditional. One exhibition of this type was held in Xi'an in 1986, featuring paintings of fake ideograms on a massive scale.[36] Also in China, during the 1990s, an abstract calligraphy movement known as "Calligraphy-ism" came into existence, a leading proponent of this movement being Luo Qi. Calligraphy-ism is an aesthetic movement that aims to develop calligraphy into an abstract art. The characters do not need to retain their traditional forms or be legible as words. In Vietnam during the 2000s, a calligraphy group called the Zenei Gang of Five appeared. To this group of young artists, "Wordless" means that which cannot be said, that which is both before and beyond the specificity of naming. To be without words is saying nothing and saying everything.
Satu Kaikkonen, a contemporary asemic artist/writer from Finland, had this to say about asemic writing:
As a creator of asemics, I consider myself an explorer and a global storyteller. Asemic art, after all, represents a kind of language that's universal and lodged deep within our unconscious minds. Regardless of language identity, each human's initial attempts to create written language look very similar and, often, quite asemic. In this way, asemic art can serve as a sort of common language—albeit an abstract, post-literate one—that we can use to understand one another regardless of background or nationality. For all its limping-functionality, semantic language all too often divides and asymmetrically empowers while asemic texts can't help but put people of all literacy-levels and identities on equal footing.[37]
Writing that doesn't have any actual writing in it whatsoever. You would think that this must be some kind of ultimate literary frontier, a frozen Antarctica
False writing systems
False writing systems are artificially constructed
Gallery
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Math Minus Math: a text of asemicmathby Rosaire Appel
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Asemic writing from Jean-Christophe Giacottino
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Title page of Tiānshū (A Book from the Sky) by Xu Bing, in pseudo-Chinese characters. The characters "天書" (Tiānshū) do not appear anywhere in the book.
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Asemic Post-Graffiti from Nuno de Matos (AKA Matox)[39]
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The Wheels of Transformation - Asemic Writing by Tatiana Roumelioti
See also
- Arche-writing
- Artist's book
- Autograph
- Calligraphy and calligraffiti
- Cut-up technique
- Experimental literature
- Glossolalia
- Graphology
- Lorem ipsum
- Lyrical abstraction
- Manuscript
- Nonsense
- Penmanship
- Proto-writing
- Pseudo-Kufic – Imitations of Arabic in European Middle Ages and Renaissance art
- Rohonc Codex
- Rorschach test
- Scribe
- Seme (semantics)
- Sound poetry
- Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard (Broodthaers)
- Visual language
- Voynich manuscript
- Wordless novel
- Zaum
Notes
- ^ Marco Giovenale and SJ Fowler. "Maintenant #65: Marco Giovenale". 3:AM Magazine.
- ^ a b Michael Jacobson (7 April 2017). "Works & Interviews". Post-Asemic Press.
- ^ "Tim Gaze". Asemic Magazine.
- ^ Peter Schwenger. "Asemic: The Art of Writing". University of Minnesota Press.
- ^ From Greek: asemos (ἄσημος) = without sign, unmarked, obscure, or ignoble.
- ^ "Satu Kaikkonen interview". SCRIPTjr.nl.
- ^ "Samplekannon interview with Michael Jacobson". Samplekannon. 18 January 2013.
- ^ "Tim Gaze: Writer & Poet". Litro. 4 January 2009.
- ^ "The Nearness Of Asemic Writing by Jim Leftwich". Galatea Resurrects. 8 February 2018.
- ^ "An Interview With Tim Gaze". Sam Woolfe. 9 January 2023.
- ^ "Jim Leftwich: "asemic writing definitions and contexts, 1998–2016"". Slowforward. 13 March 2016.
- ^ "Jim Leftwich responds to New pansemic vispo (June 10, 2020)". asemicfront2. 14 June 2020.
- ^ "Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation About Inventing New Languages". Sleek Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- ^ Thelma Mort. "Cape Town artist Andrew van der Merwe carves out beach calligraphy niche". BusinessDay.
- ^ Jaime Morrison. "Nonism: Asemic Art". The Handstand.
- ^ a b Geof Huth. "Varieties of Visual Poetry". dbqp.
- ^ "PRATE, Michael Jacobson interview". Full of Crow. Fullofcrow.com. 6 August 2009. Archived from the original on 1 August 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
- ^ Quimby Melton. "Michael Jacobson interview". SCRIPTjr.nl.
- ^ dermisache-9 Newsletters & 1 Reportaje 2000: Newsletter, 2000 from Mirtha Dermisache, Nueve Newsletters & Un Reportaje, Buenos Aires : El borde, Marseille : Mobil-Home, Montpellier : Manglar, 2004. Offset printing, 440 copies.
- ^ "An Anthology of Asemic Handwriting". Punctum Books.
- ^ Nicholls, Sarah. "Center for Book Arts: Making Sense of Asemic Writing". Centerforbookarts.blogspot.com.
- ^ Ben Jenner. "Asemic Writing". Retrieved 18 May 2023.
- ^ "'Leaking the Squalls': The Art and Letters of Henri Michaux". natalie ferris. 26 January 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
- ^ Kathryn Simon phd. "Calligraphy The Bokujin-Kai Group and Shiryu Morita". Vermillionmedia.blogspot.com.
- ^ Patrick Durgin. "Witness Mirtha Dermisache". Jacket2.org.
- ^ Angus MacLise. "Artist's Books by Angus MacLise". Pleasure Editions.
- ^ Alain Satie, Écrit en Prose, Éditions PSI, 1971.
- ^ Buzz Poole (16 July 2010). "The Writing of Art, The Art of Writing". Printmag.com.
- ^ "Volodymyr Bilyk in conversation with Michael Jacobson". Medium.com. 31 August 2019.
- ^ Kenneth Goldsmith, Uncreative Writing, Columbia University Press, 20 September 2011
- ^ Nicole Rudick (5 December 2012). "Vispo". Theparisreview.org. The Paris Review.
- ^ "Drawings on Writing". Drawingsonwriting.org.
- ^ "IRMA BLANK (1934–2023)". Artforum.
- ^ Jeff Stanley (2010). "To Read Images Not Words: Computer-Aided Analysis of the Handwriting in the Codex Seraphinianus (MSc dissertation)" (PDF). NC State University Libraries. North Carolina State University at Raleigh: 8–9.
- ^ "Free writing". stalker. 2 July 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
- ^ Donna Tull. "Asemic Writing". Lacon4.wordpress.com.
- ^ "SCRIPTjr.nl".
- Wired.com.
- ^ "asemic-writing-matox". Post Graffiti :: Urban Skins. February 2012.