Eco-Asemics by Reid Wood

 

By Reid Wood (Oberlin, Ohio, USA) (December 16, 2021)

The Joel Cohen Mail Art Asemic Intermedia Chainsaw Massacre

Mail art currently being circulated by Joel Cohen (New York City, USA)

I have written effusively praising the international mail art network (Eternal Network) for its longstanding support of visual poetry and, generally, avant and postavant genres. 

Because I want the network to be there for future generations of poets and artists as it was for us, I note this item currently being circulated by Joel Cohen. I find this a terrible insult - it is not funny - to the literary wing of the network. 

I can only conclude Cohen's "miserable miracle" (thx Henry Michaux) is the result of a lack of knowledge I find astonishing for a person with his involvement in the network. Maybe some texts cannot be reduced to a colorful water bottle sticker.

I do not know Joel Cohen nor his work very well. My understanding is he focuses on stamps - thus "Sticker Dude" - and is a one-man-band. A recent creation of his is this radically pruned version of the much-admired intermedia chart created by Dick Higgins in the 1990s. The original:

Granted, many permutations of the chart have passed through the network with alterations. I have always found them thoughtful and/or insightful humor. In comparison, Cohen is engaged in rampant deforestation aka "slash and burn." What I fear is that someone might actually believe it.

_____________________________________________

"Under Cohen's steady hand, entire poetry movements of the 20th & 21st century are 'disappeared.' Visual poetry & its intersection with concrete poetry are all that remain..."

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Under Cohen's steady hand, entire poetry movements of the 20th and 21st century are "disappeared." Visual poetry and its intersection with concrete poetry are all that remain of decades of work by countless people here in December 2021. They appear to be - like balloons - drifting away from mail art.

Both visual poetry and mail art are experiencing transformations, both turbulent - but I believe - ultimately positive. I hope the visual poets and mail artists can move forward with mutual support and understanding.

- De Villo Sloan

AF2 Lost Classic: Unpacking "decompositions" (2006) by Jim Leftwich

 

"decompositions" by Jim Leftwich (courtesy of Asemic Front Archives)

Among many treasures in the Asemic Front Project's "The Jim Leftwich File" is this complete and unpublished visual poetry collection - "decompositions" - made by Leftwich in 2006. I believe it can be fairly considered a single long piece. 

A decaying alphabet, a post-Lettrist impulse in vispo and post-literature on the horizon are issues of great relevance in the vispo community today. This manuscript should be made accessible. Additionally, "Deconstructive Asemics" has become a part of the AF2 "brand." This manuscript offers vital and highly original conceptual and material language deconstructions.

The "decompositions" manuscript is approximately 100 (awaiting final official count) index cards as shown in this post. I am currently organizing the work and will gather further documentation from Leftwich himself. I am very interested in the collection's structure at this point. 

Follow this project here at AF2!

- De Villo Sloan

From "decompositions" (2006) by Jim Leftwich

From "decompositions" (2006) by Jim Leftwich

From "decompositions" (2006) by Jim Leftwich

Copy Cat : Vittore Baroni's Cat - Nina - Pens Asemic Glitch Memoir

 

Nina - New asemic glitch Paw'n Star 

Welcome Nina & Vittore Baroni (who requires no introduction) to the Asemic Front Project.

In an announcement posted on Facebook (December 11, 2021), Baroni (from Viareggio, Italy) writes:

CATOGRAPHIES

Yesterday the cat Nina managed to pull [down] the A3 scanner I have on my desk. After the blow, the scanner started producing 'catographs' like this...

In another related comment, Baroni writes: "Nina thanks [you] for the many likes to her 'catography'.... destined to remain a unique work since that simple man of her house thought badly of fixing immediately the artistically modified scanner."

- De Villo Sloan

Asemic Front 2 Commentary: Jim Leftwich on Magickal Absurdities & RANK by Kristine Snodgrass

 

From RANK by Kristine Snodgrass (JackLeg 2021) (p.20)

Asemic Front 2 Commentary: Jim Leftwich on Magickal Absurdities & RANK by Kristine Snodgrass

https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2021/12/af2-commentary-to-rank-or-not-to-rank.html

By Jim Leftwich

 

Thanks for the AF2 commentary about RANK & to Kristine Snodgrass for sending me the book. I appreciate it very much.

The images are rich with a kind of exotic beauty, remnants & ruins left standing in a post-apocalyptic jungle:

            Page 31: A drone hovers over a sinking boat, oil coating every surface.

             Page 45: A stone, eaten by time.

Page 89: Darkness settles on the devastated town, after the hurricane has passed.

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"These are magickal absurdities, absolutely essential if we are to carry the theory & practice of asemic writing into whatever futures survive the ongoing catastrophes..."

- Jim Leftwich

___________________________

I like the prose inclusions in RANK - prose poems - inserted at a few choice spots in the sequence of images. The presence of the poems changes how we think about the book. It is as if whispers from the shadows around the edges of the glitch are reminding us to remember, while we are looking, that we are also reading.

Two notions have caught my attention recently in the larger world of all things asemic:

 1. Michael Jacobson's use of the term "asemic autobiography" and,

 2. The term PolyAsemic, used by Tatiana Roumelioti.

These are magickal absurdities, absolutely essential if we are to carry the theory and practice of asemic writing into whatever futures survive the ongoing catastrophes of the anthropocene.

-sSs-

From "decompositions" (2006) by Jim Leftwich 

(An unpublished MS. in "The Leftwich Files" AF2 Archives)

From "decompositions" (2006) by Jim Leftwich 

Asemic Concrete Text by John McConnochie

 

By John McConnochie (Queensland, Australia)

Asemic Front 2 Review: An Asemic Sentimental Education by Adam Roussopoulos

 

 

Cover of Lost Love Letters - a mail art book by Adam Roussopoulos (Minnesota, USA) (2020)

Asemic Front 2 is extremely supportive of the Eternal Network (international mail art network) as a historic and ongoing, welcoming home to concrete poetry, visual poetry & now asemic writing. 

Mail art and asemics are intertwined in the 21st century. I believe an accurate narrative of asemics cannot be assembled without both areas - mail art and asemics - considered together.

So I am glad to be able to step back from following the dizzying evolution of contemporary asemics for a sub-semic particle of a moment. I share this modest review of a very extra-ordinary, limited-edition book by mail artist Adam Roussopoulos. 

I believe it is important to include in vispo books noted from this era. Roussopoulos shows promising skills in what he reports are first-time experiments with asemics. 

Adam Roussopoulos thoughtfully includes an introduction explaining the particulars of Lost Love Letters (next in this blog). Since he produced only 12 copies total, I will forego the purchase, publisher information included in standard reviews and give you the "gold standard" in mail art. His address:

Adam Roussopolous

249 Cherita Drive

Chaska, MN 55318 USA

A mail artist lives for mail, so do not be shy. He might have some remaining copies. Deepest thanks to Adam Roussopolous. (I am left wondering who received the other copies? An archival treasure!)

- De Villo Sloan

By Adam Roussopoulos from Lost Love Letters (2020) (Minnesota, USA)

By Adam Roussopoulos from Lost Love Letters (2020) (Minnesota, USA)

By Adam Roussopoulos from Lost Love Letters (2020) (Minnesota, USA)

By Adam Roussopoulos from Lost Love Letters (2020) (Minnesota, USA)

(Note Neo-Concrete/New Concrete elements)