Anhinga Press Launches Visual Poetry Book Series Featuring Asemics, Neo-Concrete & Other Postavant Genres

 

AI-semic Writing by Alicia Starr Ryan (New Jersey, USA)

 

Asemic writing experiment using the MidJourney app 

by Alicia Starr Ryan (Maplewood, New Jersey, USA)

AI art apps & asemics

Asemic writing is a 21st century genre, even when rooted in calligraphy, that is shared globally at a feverish pace & that evolves rapidly contingent upon its internet presence; its distribution is not dependent upon institutions nor official validation & gatekeepers. 

Asemic writing is post-literate in many ways, including the fact that - unlike traditional fiction, poetry & rhetoric - its present existence is not burdened by centuries of printing & material technologies (including paper) & institutional manipulations & prescriptions. 

This breathtaking freedom, however, is tempered to the extent that asemics as well as vispo & neo-concrete forms (central to AF2) are susceptible to web fads, trends & generally novelties & cheap tricks that are lionized for a brief time but then discarded. Of course, these rapid advances in technology often aid in helping the new genres blossom. The embrace of glitch apps here at AF2 is a prime example of something I see as tech-positive (although critics abound who insist on the contrary).

The asemic fad of the moment (or the greatest postavant-tech discovery of all time that will change everything if that's how you see it) is the use of AI (artificial intelligence) art apps springing up like weed stores to generate asemic texts. (The impact of AI art apps upon vispo is even more pronounced). Yesterday I noted that Michael Jacobson had posted AI-semics at his influential new postliterates blog. 

In a flash of synchronicity that seemed particularly meaningful, my longtime mail art friend & noted visual poet & collage artist Alicia Starr Ryan expressed her interest in AI-semics. Within a few hours I had obtained the piece that opens this post: Alicia Starr Ryan's first asemic text using an AI app. She writes, "This is from the app/program MidJourney." Her son, Silas, also a talented artist, collabed with her in the process.

I find the result fascinating. I adore the piece. I have worked on a number of mail art (material culture) projects with Alicia & have followed her work for a decade. Seeing a respected visual poet & asemic writer grounded in material culture transition to a new technological mode is an ideal situation for me to assess - at least for myself - the potential of AI-semics. 

I believe when the smoke of frenzied AI-semics clears & the lonely crowd moves on to some other digital fixation, AI art tools will become a mainstay for asemic writers. A very few asemic writers will doubtless rise as innovators & masters of this amazing tool. Deepest thanks to Alicia Starr Ryan for bringing Asemic Front 2 into the brave new world of AI apps.

- De Villo Sloan

Special to Asemic Front 2: New Asemic Visual Poetry by Luc Fierens (Belgium)

Asemic visual poetry by Luc Fierens (Mechelen, Belgium)

"Fantaisie" by Luc Fierens 

Asemic Front 2 Collabs by John Richard McConnochie (Australia) & De Villo Sloan (USA)

 Asemic-concrete collab by John Richard McConnochie (Queensland, Australia) 

& De Villo Sloan (New York, USA) 

 Collab foundation by John Richard McConnochie (July 17, 2022)

Collab by John Richard McConnochie & De Villo Sloan

Collab by John Richard McConnochie & De Villo Sloan

Asemic Front 2 Review: Asemic Migration by Nico Vassilakis (Sigilist Press 2022)

Asemic Front 2 Review: Asemic Migration by Nico Vassilakis  (Afterward by Marton Koppany). Sigilist Press. 2022. 16 pages; eight plates

https://sigilistpress.com/

Review by De Villo Sloan

Andrew Brenza, a star of the New Concrete poetry, is sharing his creative time and energy with us further through his new publishing venture: Sigilist Press. The first release, Asemic Migration, is an exploration of asemics by Nico Vassilakis with an essential afterward by Hungarian vispo luminary Marton Koppany.  

As asemic theory develops coherence and recognizable sub-genres emerge, Vassilakis applies his ever-powerful perceptions to an area known as "found asemics" or (as I prefer) "eco-asemics." The book is a slim gathering of eight black and white photos showing cloudy skies with (sometimes linear) ranks of migrating birds, a contribution of note to eco-asemics.

Most of us reading Asemic Migration are surely drawn to the organic structures of flying birds inscribed upon the sky. Thus the collection is immediately accessible to a wide audience. 

In 2022 the "Asemic Wars" (as mail artist Moan Lisa named them) seem to be declining in vitriol; however, the concept of found asemics and eco-asemics has been questioned and rejected by various factions and individuals in vispo communities. Some might be more comfortable calling the image-text in the book simply "asemic suggestive." Whatever your point of view, Asemic Migration is a text meant to be "read." 

The black and white images (mixing to an Existential gray) are a decisive thematic and tonal choice extending, I think, beyond financial considerations at Sigilist Press. Asemic Migration might have been a series of blue skyscapes and billowing clouds on a summer day. Instead, Vassilakis has chosen well-tested avant garde tropes to cause audience dissociation (or Brechtian "alienation"). Many readers I suspect, based on my own experience, will not at first recognize the lines of birds in the images.

Thus, Vassilakis has made a contribution to the current gothic and "death metal" tones in asemics being explored by Kristine Snodgrass and others. I believe this trend is inspired by the circulation of writing about asemic theory by Jim Leftwich. Devoid of color, Asemic Migration does not gravitate toward the noir as much as it does a Melvillian paleness.

From Asemic Migration by Nico Vassilakis (Sigilist Press 2022)

From Asemic Migration (migratory bird patterns accented)

My own subjective response is to immediately contextualize Vassilakis's eight-image meditation with skyscapes by Fluxus artists Yoko Ono and Geoffrey Hendricks. Of course skyscape-themed artists are not limited to Fluxus; they are part of a venerable tradition. Vassilakis has made a vital image-text contribution.

Marton Koppany is much-admired for his vispo theory. The inclusion of his afterward is another excellent choice for Asemic Migration. Hopefully, we are all becoming better asemic readers. For this reason, I encourage asemic writers to include statements, theory and explication in their books.

In the afterward, Koppany compares Asemic Migration to bookworks by Ed Rusha [Ruscha], such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations or Thirtyfour Parking Lots as a context for Asemic Migration. 

Koppany offers other key insights as well. He writes, "Were the birds larger (or the sky smaller), we could see each and every one of them, they would not disappear behind the indecipherable letters, words and phrases created by their flight in flocks, in place. If asemic writing looks like writing but cannot be read in a strict sense, Asemic Migration describes an escape that gets you nowhere."

Vassilakis connects us to the near-universal human experiences of wonder via changings seasons and recognition of temporality. More specifically, however, he offers a relentless meditation on the primal roots of language in nature. I find the collection becomes more and more engaging with each fresh reading.

-sSs-

Femsemics: Asemic Body Art Collab by Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet

 Asemic body art collab by Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet (May 2022)

Many AF2 readers are aware visual poet Kristine Snodgrass is currently working with asemic tattoos and body art, generating fascinating documentation that can be found at a number of online venues. Snodgrass discussed this art extensively (along with her femsemic theory) in her recent AF2 interview. If you somehow missed it, I strongly recommend you take a look:

https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2022/04/asemic-front-2-interview-kristine.html

Snodgrass has recently completed asemic body art collabs with Colin J. Rae & Jay Snodgrass, among others.

As a continuation of the tatasemic narrative, I am thrilled to have obtained permission to share these collabs where Kristine Snodgrass is the foundation for the distinctive calligraphic style of New England visual poet Karla Van Vliet. 

Van Vliet is also no stranger to AF2. Among other material, I was thrilled to be able to report on the success of her book She Speaks Tongues (Anhinga 2021)

https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2021/12/af2-meta-review-karla-van-vliet-she.html

Deepest thanks to Karla Van Vliet and Kristine Snodgrass.

- De Villo Sloan

Asemic body art collab by Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet (May 2022)

Asemic body art collab by Kristine Snodgrass & Karla Van Vliet (May 2022)

ASEMIOTICS 23

 

                                          23

ASEMIOTICS

 

By De Villo Sloan

(with Kristine Snodgrass)

 

 

Draft May 18, 2022