Asemic Music Score by Brent Bechtel

Asemic music score by Brent Bechtel (Michigan, USA)

 

 

Brent (Nathan) Bechtel was a popular contributor to the first Asemic Front, and he generously granted permission to include this interesting piece in the kick-off of AF's second iteration.

 

I am very interested in sharing event scores - music and/or performance - that might be considered asemic. This colorful work by Brent Bechtel is a piece that could be interpreted for musical performances or more generally for some kind of event, even though it cannot be "read" in a conventional sense. I am hoping AF viewers will look at this as an asemic music score and consider the possibilities of the form. So, as before, Brent Bechtel's evolution as a visual poet has an affinity to AF's own organic progression.

 

Here is a closer look at the score's more colorful page. The connection between color and tonal musical expression - synesthesia - is an apparent route to an interpretation of the piece, were a musician or musicians tasked with a performance.

 

 

 

  

Spoken word asemic performances, either spontaneous or based on event scores, are already a precedent, even if not as common or popular as asemic writing on the page. For instance, documentation of numerous performances by John M. Bennett can easily be considered spoken word asemics; and it worth taking some time to listen to some of these online if you have not already done so. Spoken word asemics if sung might be a route to asemic music.

 

Based on conversations I have had with other asemic writers, asemic music on the audio level would be harder - if not impossible - to achieve. Especially given heavy experimentation in the field of music, it might be that the asemic concept simply cannot be applied to music and only exists in the unique realm of language. Then again, perhaps imaginative composers will carve out an asemic music genre on the audio level. Ironically, as this work by Brent Bechtel indicates, written asemic scores on the page are possible and have huge potential (because musical notation is a process of signification). Perhaps the audio dimension of asemic music is rooted in silence?

 

 

- DVS

 

 

 

 

Asemically altered page by Brent Bechtel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



2 X Nancy Bell Scott

Asemics by Nancy Bell Scott (Portland, Maine, USA)

 



 

I am pleased to include in the launch of Asemic Front 2 two pieces received from Nancy Bell Scott both dated January 31, 2018. (The posting process for AF is non-linear.) Nancy Bell Scott is much-admired in the asemic writing and visual poetry communities, and her contributions helped define and shape the aesthetic of the first AF. Doing collabs with her was a great experience. I hope to be sharing more of her work on this, the second leg of our visual-textual journey.

- De Villo Sloan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asemic Writing by Mim Golub Scalin

Asemic writing by Mim Golub Scalin (Richmond, Virginia, USA)

 

 

 

I am thrilled to start the second phase of this great journey that is the Asemic Front project with work by a very fine artist and excellent Eternal Network friend: Mim Golub Scalin. I have participated in a number of international projects with Mim, and I believe I have become familiar with her work over the years.

 

Mim Golub Scalin identifies primarily as a visual artist. Her exposure to avant garde and post-avant practices in the international mail art network has challenged her to experiment with visual-textual composition, including the cut-up technique. Most likely, Mim has an artistically adventurous spirit that would have attracted her to the conceptual, found, intermedia side of things regardless of her associations. But I'm glad to know her and have her participate in the far-flung network that Asemic Front touches.

 

I can think of no better place than Asemic Front 2 to document Mim's asemic calligraphy. I hope we will be able to share more, asemic work by Mim Golub Scalin. Following the evolution of asemic writers and visual poets through repeat appearances has proven to be - I think - an initially unrecognized benefit of the Asemic Front project.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some brief words about Asemic Front 2 because I would much rather devote time and space to the documentation of the superb work that attracted so many to the first phase of the project. But I receive many questions about the project and how to participate.

 

Adding a second blog is mostly the result of practical issues such as the need for more digital space and improving editorial conditions. Unfortunately, a change like this creates confusion "on both sides of the screen," as they say, so we will assume some time is needed for old friends to find the new location and to get the bugs out of the format.

 

My experience with three iterations of MinXus-Lynxus suggests that things will gradually fall into place. So faithful friends of Asemic Front please bear with me and things will smooth out shortly.

 

This is also a good time to explain again what Asemic Front is about. At its root Asemic Front is a call in the international mail art network that organizes and encourages asemic vispo collaborations. For this reason, the "material culture" of asemics and visual poetry are encouraged including hard copies and snail mail; however, digital vispo and email are also obviously used. Relevant points here:

 

1) Contributors to Asemic Front come via the Eternal Network and/or the overlapping visual poetry and asemic communities. So this doesn't use the dinosaur "literary journal" model. I don't accept "submissions" nor are there "editors" in any traditional sense or "standards." Basically, I am only interested in my friends and their friends and really good-looking people. Asemic Front is kind of a closed thing.

 

Think of Asemic Front as the documentation phase of things that happened somewhere else as part of a process that you were not involved in (unless you were and in that case I'm really sorry if you read this "boiler plate" stuff.)

 

2) The core of Asemic Front is collaborations, but much solo work also appears here that relates to the often theoretical commentary you will find. In that sense, the original Asemic Front evolved organically in interesting and unexpected ways - thanks to the contributors.

 

So, dear friends, let us not concern ourselves with these earthly things any longer. It's opening night among the asemic constellations. Let's roll.....

 

- De Villo Sloan