Visual Poetry

Öz-Bazen somut şiir ya da desen şiiri olarak da adlandırılan görsel şiir, en eski şiir türlerinden birisidir. Cizvit desenlerinden kaligrafik Çin metinlerine kadar uzanan tarihsel bir arkaplanda kendine yer bulan görsel şiir şairlere dil ve biçimi eğip bükerek denemeler yapma imkanı sağlamış ve kendilerine ait bir dil oluşturmalarına olanak sağlamıştır. Aynı zamanda, görsel şiir sanatçı ile okuru arasında daha önce eşi görülmemiş, kendiliğinden oluşan ve samimi bir bağ kurulmasına yardımcı olur. Burjuvanın öngördüğü ve dayattığı normların sanatı hayattan koparttığı ve kitleleri özgün sanatın üretim ve tüketim süreçlerine yabancılaştıran bu çağda böyle bir bağın kurulmasının elzem olduğu inkar edilemez. Görsel şiir farklı biçimleri, kalıpları ve dilsel yapıları bir araya getirir, böylelikle şiir tek bir görsel imgeye dönüşür ve okuyucuyu anlamın yaratılması sürecine dahil olmaya zorlar. Bu bağlamda, bu makale görsel şiirin, ve daha geniş bir çerçevede avantgart sanatın, burjuva estetiği normları ve değerlerini nasıl dönüştürdüğü ve ne ölçüde sanatın politik yönünü ve gündelik hayatın pratik yönlerini bir araya getirebildiği Avrupa avantgart akımları ve Amerika'da avantgardın gelişimi açısından değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler-Görsel şiir, avantgart sanat, dil, biçim ideoloji. Abstract-Visual poetry, sometimes named as concrete poetry or pattern poetry, has been one of the oldest genres in poetry. Ranging from Jesuit and Chinese calligraphic design to modern-avantgarde and contemporary media design, visual poetry inspired poets to experiment with language and form and provided a unique opportunity to create their own language. It also ensured an unprecedented, instant and intimate communication between the artist and the audience in an age when bourgeois ideology separated art from life and alienated the masses to the production and consumption processes of authentic art. Visual poetry assembles forms, frames, and linguistic structures so that the poem itself becomes one single visual sign and urges the reader to engage in the creation of meaning. This study , in this regard, will discuss how visual poetry, and avant-garde art in general, served to radically transform the norms and values of bourgeois aesthetics and to what extent it enabled to reunite politics of art and practicality of everyday life with particular references to European avant-garde as well as American avant-garde.

"Il rapporto tra la prima avanguardia italiana e la coeva generazione poetica spagnola: un tema “difficile” quello che Daniele Corsi analizza, mettendo al centro della sua indagine la creazione linguistica del primo Novecento nella penisola iberica. Dopo aver tracciato un panorama storico dell'incontro tra gli intellettuali spagnoli e l’“avanguardia”, ed aver rilevato l'influenza anche lessicale del Futurismo italiano sulla produzione spagnola del periodo, l’autore si concentra sull'elaborazione dei codici retorici di sessantacinque manifesti letterari in spagnolo e in catalano dal 1909 al 1928. Il percorso termina con un’analisi degli apporti spagnoli al linguaggio ultraista, con il loro “bisogno furioso di liberare le parole”, e la “migrazione” della metafora al linguaggio filmico, con Buñuel. Né manca la valutazione di "Eliche" di Guillermo de Torre, di cui Corsi, nel 2005, è stato brillante traduttore in italiano. "Futurismi in Spagna" segna così il punto di arrivo di ricerche intraprese da un decennio, che sono orgogliosa di aver visto nascere e crescere".

Tratto dalla "Prefazione" di Maria Grazia Profeti

http://www.aracneeditrice.it/aracneweb/index.php/pubblicazione.html?item=9788854874435

Visual Poetry: Key Historic Figures from Flanders in an International Context

This paper compares historiographic and object-related definitions of visual and concrete poetry. An integrated definition is proposed, situating visual poetry in a semiosphere between fine arts, music and literature where verbal and non-verbal elements form a spatial-semiotic unity. Each element is a bearer and a signifier of meaning on its own, and in combination with the others. The work can only be reproduced via multimedia techniques, while an oral performance will never be its true representation. Finally, the materials, techniques and methods used provide the possibility to date the work and to recognize or identify its maker. This definition is then deconstructed and its separate elements are studied in detail. Methods from literature, art and communication sciences, and experimental/Gestalt psychology are combined in a new toolbox and research methodology, which are then used to analyse five visual poems from different generations from the beginning of the twentieth century till now.

Key words: visual poetry, concrete poetry, semiotics, poesia visiva, vispo, asemic writing, glitch art, poetry, fine arts, music, oral tradition, noise, sound, experimental poetry, avant-garde, Paul van Ostaijen, Paul de Vree, Renaat Ramon, Luc Fierens, Helen White

Co-edited by Crag Hill and Nico Vassilakis, The Last Vispo Anthology documents a profound shift in visual poetry, new digital media stretching the parameters – the potential – of the alphabet. Through inclusion of 148 contributors from 23 countries, new and establ ished practitioners, The Last Vispo Anthology builds a bridge from the pictorial writing of the past into the vast future of visual writing.

Komunikasi secara visual membuat pesan yang disampaikan menjadi lebih komunikatif dan mudah dipahami. Di sisi lain, komunikasi visual belum dapat memfasilitasi publikasi terhadap karya sastra, di mana pembaca karya sastra tidak sampai satu juta dari 200 juta penduduk Indonesia. Angkatan 66 adalah salah satu periode yang sangat berpengaruh dalam sejarah sastra Indonesia. Angkatan ini memiliki kontribusi besar yang memperkaya khazanah sastra Indonesia sebagai kearifan lokal yang harus diapresiasi. Salah satu cara mengapresiasi sastra adalah penginterpretasian puisi yang dapat didorong dengan visualisasi puisi. Pengubahan teks puisi ke dalam ilustrasi sudah lazim dilakukan merujuk kepada teori alih wahana. Dalam membuat ilustrasi, puisi dianalisis unsur intrinsik dan ekstrinsiknya untuk mengetahui makna puisi. Perancangan dilakukan berlandaskan teori metafora visual dan prinsip dasar DKV. Konsep visual yang digunakan adalah ilustrasi yang memiliki kesan lugas, naif, dan impresif karena kesan tersebut sesuai dengan latar belakang Angkatan 66. Ilustrasi dibuat dengan menggunakan eksplorasi media sesuai dengan makna puisi kepribadian tiap penyair. Pengalihan puisi yang berbentuk teks menjadi ilustrasi yang dikumpulkan dalam sebuah buku dapat memberikan gagasan baru dalam penginterpretasian puisi dan dapat membuat puisi menjadi bacaan yang menarik.

Visual Communication is one of a way to make message becomes more communicative. But the fact is not in line with the publication of literature, in which the reader of literature works in Indonesia is merely one million of 200 million population. Angkatan 66: one of Indonesian's generation of litarature is a very influental period in Indonesian's history of literature. This generation has a great contributions that enrich the literary treasures of Indonesia as local wisdom that must be appreciated. One way to appreciate literature works is doing visual interpretation of the poetry. The alteration of the text to illustration is already prevalent based to Alih Wahana theory. In making illustration, the intrinsic and extrinsic elements of poetry are analyzed to find out the meaning of the poem. The design is done based on the theory of visual metaphors and the basic principle of graphic design. The visual concept is to make an unadorned, naïve, and impressive illustration style, accordance to characteristic of Angkatan 66's background with the using of different media based on every poet's personality. Poetry text diversion into a visual illustration collected in a book can provide a new idea in interpreting and make the poetry more interesting.

Who Unfolded My Origami Brain? is a collection of 99 fragments, aphorisms, and typographic poems. By turns gnomic, rhetorically playful, lyric, and apocalyptic, these distilled and minimalist texts were painstakingly typeset and printed by hand with a Trodat 5253 Self-Inking Custom Stamp, a mechanism that accommodates three and four millimeter rubber type. The goal of Leong's ascetic practice of "stenography" (literally meaning "narrow writing") was to impress a surface, to put it "under an impression" (in the way one is "put under" hypnosis). The poems were then transmediated and transformed to create a visually striking blend of digital and analog textures. The color-coded pages of the book feature special buttons that allow for multiple pathways of reading: Who Unfolded My Origami Brain? is a hypertextual, hypermaterial experience.

O recorte deste trabalho limita-se à poesia visual e à poesia hipertextual. Os procedimentos dividiram-se em três fases: foram criados 28 poemas visuais, convergindo técnica e esteticamente o texto escrito com imagens do design, da pintura e outros tipos de desenhos. Foram escolhidos oito desses poemas visuais para serem retrabalhados hipertextualmente por diferentes profissionais. Realizou-se uma parceria com a W3haus para o desenvolvimento de um site e o planejamento de mais alguns ciberpoemas.

The aim of this article is to present the connections between literature and art, as well as a graphic and artistic sing. The main subject of the study is the problem of typography, pictography, calligraphy and the visualisation as a sign created from the merging of a verbal code and a drawing representation. The dialogue of two sisters, due to which poetry has become a verbal painting /pictura loquens/, exhibits the variety of artistic creations based on the selected French literature of the early 20th century. The new tendencies which provoked the writers and painters, they could define the plasticity of words and pictures, as well as discover similarities of these two layers. The study attempts to discuss the co-existence and co-implication of the verbal codes and pictorial codes.

O estudo dos livros de artista é apresentado sob a forma de uma enciclopédia, que é ao mesmo tempo um manual de construção de uma Enciclopédia Visual. São mais de 70 verbetes distribuídos em 12 capítulos temáticos, que tratam das poéticas do arquivo, da coleção e do inventário, além da arte da memória, a montagem e a alegoria contemporânea. A poesia visual, a metalinguagem e os paratextos editoriais são destacados em outros capítulos. São abordadas também a produção e a transmissão de conhecimento através de imagens, assim como o uso de mapas, pictogramas e diagramas em livros de artista. São reproduzidas mais de 150 obras, sendo que a maioria dos livros estudados pertencem à Coleção Livro de Artista da UFMG.

Concrete poetry is poetry that draws attention to the presence of language itself; however, it can also signify something else. This paper focuses on visual poetry and examines the semiotic processes in concrete poetry created in Japanese. While there has been significant discussion on individual works, as there has been little theoretical discussion on Japanese concrete poetry, it has remained a curiosity. The intention, therefore, is not to overestimate the particularity of Japanese concrete poetry, but rather to determine the general principles that are common to alphabetical concrete poetry. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of concrete poetry as a fundamental visual communication practice.

This book focuses on the experimental practice of Katalin Ladik, a poet, performer and actress born in the former Yugoslavia. Her career as a poet writing in Hungarian language began in the intellectual circles of the neoavantgarde journal Új Symposion (New Symposium) in Novi Sad, but the subversiveness of her feminine practice gave her a distinctive position in the whole Yugoslav neoavantgarde scene as early as the late sixties. At the same time, linearity was also being replaced in Ladik’s poetic works by an extended notion of poetry, as she realised her actionism in a complex and mutual intermedial relationship between poetry, sound and visuality. Her performances attracted lively attention not only on account of an interpretation of poetry and sound  that was radically new both in Yugoslavia and abroad at the time; her use of the eroticized body also seemed to lack any predecessors in the local avantgarde of the day. Katalin Ladik, who synthesized the traditions of Balkan folk music and Hungarian folklore, could work supraethnically, as it were, in this multiethnic Yugoslav context, using the references of multiple cultures, which suited with persistently international spirit of the avantgarde.

The metaphorical relation between the craft of weaving and singing or writing has often been noted and explained, not least with view to the etymological relation of text and textile. It is unsurprising, then, that it has become a commonplace assumption among literary critics to interpret the description of woven garments or scenes of weaving in literature as unequivocal representations of the literary texts themselves. The present contribution proposes to defamiliarise these overly familiar relations and make a fresh attempt at explaining the success of the metaphor of weaving for textual production: Engaging with the various stages and procedures of textile production at the upright loom common in Antiquity, the paper identifies two fundamental qualities of weaving that lie at the heart of its metaphorical appropriation: the linearity and coherence of the working process in weaving and its instantaneous materialisation in the woven garment. Drawing on a wide range of texts from ancient literature (Plautus, Cicero, Optatian, ps.Virgil’s Ciris, and ps.Tibullus’ Pagyricus Messallae), it is shown that the metaphor of weaving owes its success to the fact that it allows for reflection on the dialectics of ideality and materiality in texts. Against this backdrop, a reading of the Metamorphoses is put forward that interprets the Ovidian weaving scenes as a meditation on the metaphor iself.

This research discusses how Arabic Poetry can be reenacted through the medium of Poetry films. It gives an account of the different movements of Arabic Poetry, and how the role they played in the Arab and Egyptian culture has changed over time. The research also discusses the new approach of animated Poetry films that visualize poems in various techniques, and attempts to see how these techniques can be incorporated to create an Animated Poetry Film that visualizes an Arabic poem.

Word – Picture – Sound. Literature and Visual Arts
in the Polish Avant-garde 1918-1939


The book presents an extensive analysis of the main variants of the relation between literature and visual arts in the Polish avant-garde works and theories of art. The framework of the study is the concept of modernism in a broad sense. One of the crucial elements of such an understanding of the term is the role of intersemiotic experiments.
The first part of the book focuses on the works of Tytus Czyżewski who was both a member of the group of futurist poets and the group of painters called “Formiści”. One of the main problems discussed here is whether Czyżewski was really, as it is sometimes claimed, a “bilingual” avant-gardist who managed to create parallel works of comparably high quality in two artistic codes – those of literature and fine arts. The study examines several typographical works combining pictures and words, and aims to define the artistic method of Czyżewski, which I call “słowografia” (“wordgraphy”). A part of the analysis is devoted to the problem of collage in literature and visual arts. I also investigate the compositional and semantic parallels between the paintings and poems of Czyżewski, referring to formism, symbolism, Art Nouveau, surrealism, “national style” and the case of specific, dada-like “kompozycje wielopłaszczyznowe” (“multi-surface compositions”).
The study continues with the description of the theoretical and artistic legacy of two cooperating avant-gardists, members of the group “a. r.”, which was open both to men of letters and visual artists. I explore similarities between the ideas and works of a poet Julian Przyboś and a painter Władysław Strzemiński, and investigate the controversial issue of identyfing unism (strict formula for abstract painting introduced by Strzemiński) within literary structures. I also discuss different ways of constructivist visualisation of poetry in Strzemiński’s typographical interpretation of Przyboś’s volume of poetry entitled Sponad. The analysis reveals some features of Strzemiński’s work that have not been noticed yet e.g. its closeness to postwar concrete poetry. What is more, I confront Strzeminski’s practice with his own theory of typography and, by contrast, with the works of another Polish constructivist, Mieczysław Szczuka. The study also raises the problem of the relation between the work of art and the comment of its author. The last  issue is the contemporary reception of the avant-garde experiments in the field of poetry and typography.
The third part of the book is devoted to the works of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson. I analyse avant-garde films of the couple in the light of modernist visual arts and, to some extent, literature. The most detailed analysis focuses on two works, which, as I claim, can be viewed as closely linked to poetry: Europa (and its postwar reconstruction) and The Eye and the Ear. I examine the problem of cinematographic visualisation of metaphors and some other figures of speech. Moreover, I present the Themersons’ art of typography (including book illustration) done for their publishing house Gaberbocchus Press and the early experiments in typography in books for children written by Stefan and illustrated by Franciszka.
I do not seek one general formula that would enable the examination of all types of intersemiotic connections. On the contrary, I am convinced that each example of theoretical or practical relations between different arts and artists working in different fields (especially in the modernist era) requires a separate detailed investigation. My aim is to present a wide range of interwar interactions between literature and visual arts, which seems to be one of the most significant ways of describing Polish modernism.

La poesia concreta e la poesia visiva sono due tra i movimenti artistico-letterari più significativi nel panorama della sperimentazione poetica della seconda metà del ’900. Il volume di Sauro Fabi si propone di mettere in risalto affinità e differenze tra i due movimenti, concentrando l’attenzione su uno degli obiettivi culturali più ambiziosi che accomuna le due esperienze poetiche, quello di creare una poesia che fosse altamente sperimentale, ma, allo stesso tempo, accessibile al cosiddetto “pubblico di massa”: una vera e propria “avanguardia popolare”. I poeti concreti e visivi ricorrevano a strategie artistiche diverse che convergevano nel proporre al pubblico testi in cui materiali verbali e visuali si fondevano incorporando elementi tipici della “cultura di massa” e puntando su un’impatto comunicativo diretto e immediato. Per valutare l’efficacia e la validità di tali strategie, l’analisi di Fabi parte da una ricognizione del ruolo svolto dal costruttivismo russo nelle poetiche dei concretisti e dei poeti visivi, per poi proseguire attraverso le sperimentazioni brasiliane, italiane e scozzesi in un percorso dialettico e comparatistico in cui le opere (e le ambizioni socio-culturali dei loro autori) vengono esaminate mettendo in risalto la loro diversa collocazione sia rispetto a quel pubblico di massa che volevano raggiungere, sia rispetto a quello che Bourdieu definisce come il “campo del potere”.

A monograph on Old Polish visual and conceptual poetry (16th to 18th century). Annotated bibliography of all known visual poems with reproductions. Fist chaoters cover ancient and medieval visual poetry, with more attention given to the renaissance reception and flourishing of the genre in Europe.

Word – Picture – Sound. Literature and Visual Arts
in the Polish Avant-garde 1918-1939


The book presents an extensive analysis of the main variants of the relation between literature and visual arts in the Polish avant-garde works and theories of art. The framework of the study is the concept of modernism in a broad sense. One of the crucial elements of such an understanding of the term is the role of intersemiotic experiments.
The first part of the book focuses on the works of Tytus Czyżewski who was both a member of the group of futurist poets and the group of painters called “Formiści”. One of the main problems discussed here is whether Czyżewski was really, as it is sometimes claimed, a “bilingual” avant-gardist who managed to create parallel works of comparably high quality in two artistic codes – those of literature and fine arts. The study examines several typographical works combining pictures and words, and aims to define the artistic method of Czyżewski, which I call “słowografia” (“wordgraphy”). A part of the analysis is devoted to the problem of collage in literature and visual arts. I also investigate the compositional and semantic parallels between the paintings and poems of Czyżewski, referring to formism, symbolism, Art Nouveau, surrealism, “national style” and the case of specific, dada-like “kompozycje wielopłaszczyznowe” (“multi-surface compositions”).
The study continues with the description of the theoretical and artistic legacy of two cooperating avant-gardists, members of the group “a. r.”, which was open both to men of letters and visual artists. I explore similarities between the ideas and works of a poet Julian Przyboś and a painter Władysław Strzemiński, and investigate the controversial issue of identyfing unism (strict formula for abstract painting introduced by Strzemiński) within literary structures. I also discuss different ways of constructivist visualisation of poetry in Strzemiński’s typographical interpretation of Przyboś’s volume of poetry entitled Sponad. The analysis reveals some features of Strzemiński’s work that have not been noticed yet e.g. its closeness to postwar concrete poetry. What is more, I confront Strzeminski’s practice with his own theory of typography and, by contrast, with the works of another Polish constructivist, Mieczysław Szczuka. The study also raises the problem of the relation between the work of art and the comment of its author. The last  issue is the contemporary reception of the avant-garde experiments in the field of poetry and typography.
The third part of the book is devoted to the works of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson. I analyse avant-garde films of the couple in the light of modernist visual arts and, to some extent, literature. The most detailed analysis focuses on two works, which, as I claim, can be viewed as closely linked to poetry: Europa (and its postwar reconstruction) and The Eye and the Ear. I examine the problem of cinematographic visualisation of metaphors and some other figures of speech. Moreover, I present the Themersons’ art of typography (including book illustration) done for their publishing house Gaberbocchus Press and the early experiments in typography in books for children written by Stefan and illustrated by Franciszka.
I do not seek one general formula that would enable the examination of all types of intersemiotic connections. On the contrary, I am convinced that each example of theoretical or practical relations between different arts and artists working in different fields (especially in the modernist era) requires a separate detailed investigation. My aim is to present a wide range of interwar interactions between literature and visual arts, which seems to be one of the most significant ways of describing Polish modernism.

Pantagruele e compagni, dopo una lunga sequela di avventure, arrivano finalmente davanti alla “Dive Bouteille” per interrogarla.
Bacbuc, nobile pontefice, invita Panurge a compiere i gesti di rito: lo fa inginocchiare, gli fa baciare la fontana, gli fa eseguire tre danze dionisiache, lo fa sedere a terra tra due seggi preparati appositamente per la cerimonia e, infine, aperto un libro rituale, gli suggerisce di porre le sue domande cantando in versi. Ed ecco che per François Rabelais (1494-1553) l’interrogazione assume proprio la forma della bottiglia, che in modo del tutto sorprendente risponde: “Trink”, cioè “Bevi”.

El artículo revisa los momentos más paradigmáticos en las relaciones entre las visuales y la literatura del siglo XX y XXI: José Juan Tablada, Jesús Arellano, Mathias Goeritz, Octavio Paz, Ulises Carrión, Carlos Amorales son algunos de los artistas que se revisan a la luz de conceptos como iconotextualidad e intermedialidad.