DECONSTRUCTIVE ASEMICS
By De Villo Sloan
One prevalent strain in current asemic text creation involves the decomposition of existing texts and alphabets. Written language is rendered “incomprehensible” to create asemic constructs that are unreadable in terms of the conventional process of reading.
The asemic construct is not necessarily devoid of meaning, but the communication process does not occur in the same way as the conventional process that signification creates meaning in reading.
As asemics provide revelations about the nature of language, one contradiction emerges in relation to the notion of asemic unreadability: Asemic constructs are a metaphor for written language; asemics are meta-language because they can only refer to written language but ultimately are not language themselves.
The ghost of language might emerge and disappear in an asemic text. In this instance, we can experience the asemic duality of standing on the borderline between meaning and the incomprehensible. We are witnessing alphabetic symbols evolving into another form of discourse.
The term "deconstruction" here is less a reference to Jacques Derrida's writing and more a reference to the literal, material dismantling and obscuration of texts and symbols.
Methods utilized in deconstructive asemics include distortion, disruption, decay, erasure, various chance operations and/or automatism. Deconstructive asemics and its methods can be viewed as a destructive dismantling of the written word, a metaphor for the decline of the Age of Print and the cultural concept of “literature.”
The work of some asemic writers and artists suggests a revolutionary spirit that includes a program for the obliteration of previous modes of discourse. Alternately, a significant group of other asemicists are creating a deeply meditative asemics that focus on harmony and “reader” engagement with the asemic text; deconstructive asemics appear throughout.
The field of asemic writing and art is relatively new and has sparked global interest. We are in the rare position of witnessing the birth of a cultural mode we do not fully understand.
-sSs-
(Originally published on Asemic Front (1) April 1, 2017; this revision made July 30, 2024)
No comments:
Post a Comment