AF2 Commentary: Ferran Destemple's Asemic Erasure of William S. Burroughs' "The Soft Machine" by De Villo Sloan (revised)

Page from William S. Burroughs' The Soft Machine altered/erased 

by Ferran Destemple (Barecelona, Spain) (2018)

(AF Archive)

Ferran Destemple's Asemic Erasure of William S. Burroughs’

The Soft Machine

By De Villo Sloan

Spanish writer and artist Ferran Destemple sent me altered pages from William Burroughs’ The Soft Machine as a submission to Asemic Front.

Ferran wrote, “In relation to the pages I sent you, I need to tell you that it is one of my works about Burroughs’ texts. In this case I erased parts of the text to convert or transform it into an asemic one.” Thus he states his intention to create an asemic parasite inside the textual host: A viral metaphor I would like to imagine both Burroughs and Destemple could appreciate.

I like Destemple's concept and his choice of erasure. The pages work for me as engaging visual poetry. Extending the William S. Burroughs cut-up experiment into the realm of asemics is, I believe, a project of great interest and importance.

Burroughs, Gysin and Norse believed the cut-up could strip away Maya and reveal cosmic truths, fitting for their era. Ferran Destemple takes us even further into the book’s inner functions.

The Soft Machine is a text where conventional linear narrative and linguistic conventions are already disrupted in order to reveal the machinations, codes and deep structures ordinarily hidden from the reader’s consciousness. By moving the text further into the realm of the unintelligible, even greater depths are revealed.

Some asemicists aligned with specific theories might question if Ferran’s work is truly asemic. Erasure can raise a process question when there is an original, underlying text that can be reconstructed. In this case I contend Destemple uses deconstructive asemics to hone Burroughs’ text into asemics. I am compelled to table a discussion of erasure as a viable generator of asemics and accept Ferran’s work as the brilliant, conceptual asemic text it is.

De Villo Sloan

September 21, 2018

Elbridge, New York

(revised August 7, 2024)

-sSs-

AF2 Commentary: The Lettrist Presence in Current Visual Poetry: Serse Luigetti by De Villo Sloan (revised)

 

Vispo collab by Serse Luigetti (Italy) & De Villo Sloan (USA) (2019) 

(AF Archive)

The Lettrist Presence in Current Visual Poetry: Serse Luigetti

 

By De Villo Sloan

 

“No word is capable of carrying impulses one wants to send with it.”

- Isidore Isou

 

Italian visual poet Serse Luigetti ‘s work is an excellent example of my deconstructive asemics theory in practice. Luigetti’s vispo has shown asemic elements for decades. I also note the presence of a Lettrist influence. In this review, I focus on elements of the deconstructive and Lettrist in Serse's work.

Luigetti employs - I conjecture via both knowledge and intuition - the aesthetic of letters and fonts explored by the 20^th century Lettrists (and their predecessors). His work is not exclusively Lettrist and we might consider a Post-Lettrist designation in vispo. One of Luigetti’s great skills as a poet is that he has been able to flawlessly synthesize powerful influences - thus “the anxiety of influence” notion was born long ago.

I believe we are at a stage in the evolution of 21^st century visual poetry where an acknowledgment of the pervasive presence of 20^th century Lettrist influences is appropriate and perhaps beneficial.

Isidore Isou’s (1925-2007) visionary/revolutionary movement in 1940s Paris had a massive impact on filmmakers, artists, writers and others, not to mention generations of concrete and visual poets. Serse Luigetti has filtered the influences through himself.

Many of Luigetti’s asemic symbols and structures involve the decomposition - or even dismemberment - of existing printed language and often the creation of asemics and related forms.

Often these involve a focus on specific letters dismembered in variations and repetitions. Sometimes complete letters survive. The absence of a root text eliminates the possibility that these compositions can be deciphered or “read” in the conventional way.

During the Asemic Front Project, I have admired and viewed closely Luigetti’s approach as deconstructive and Lettrist-influenced. I believe closer examination of his work in this area reveals particularly significant insights.

 

De Villo Sloan

Elbridge, New York

June 7, 202o

(revised August 7, 2024)

- sSs-

Vispo collab by Serse Luigetti (Italy) & De Villo Sloan (USA) (2019)

AF2 Commentary: The Project 26 Vispo Book - Introduction to Edition #1 by De Villo Sloan (revised)

 

Asemic text by Kerri Pullo (Arizona, USA) (2020) (AF2 Archive)

The Project 26 Collaborative Visual Poetry Mail Art Book

Introduction

 

 

By De Villo Sloan

From December 2010 through April 2011, a group of artists from countries around the globe collaborated to produce this book. Their backgrounds are diverse, and their contributions represent a stunning range of cultures and intellectual perspectives.

On these pages you will find the work of painters, photographers, visual poets, conceptual artists and book artists, among others. The thread connecting them is their involvement in the international mail-art network, which contributed to fruitful communications, exchanges of ideas and ultimately a product that achieves unity and significance.

Cheryl Penn, founder of the South African Mail-Art School, created the concept for this book. I was fortunate to be able to assist her with organization, which gave me the opportunity to observe the scope of an international arts project (headquartered on the internet).

I began my own foray into mail-art at a time when it seemed to be an eccentric and arcane cultural practice emanating from the New York City axis and several European centers, falling far short of the mainstream in any direction.

I feel honored to have witnessed artists from around the world working together in harmony and with commitment – something often considered impossible in the larger cultural arena.

On these pages, you will find the work of artists who are considered leaders in their fields. Their work stands alongside exciting pieces by emerging artists. In mail-art, credentials and accolades matter little. Of primary importance are community, mutual support and love of the work.

The International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA), founded by Ruud Janssen of the Netherlands, provided the perfect place in cyberspace for Project 26 headquarters. Members had illuminating virtual discussions and posted drafts.

As a graduate student, Cheryl Penn studied the work of U.S. artist Ray Johnson and his New York Correspondence School. Johnson contributed significantly to the establishment of the mail-art movement.

Also known as the Eternal Network, mail-art has been a dynamic but largely underground circuit (one of the art world’s best kept secrets) for artists to share work and ideas. Far from simply trading artwork through the mail, the true mail-art experience requires interaction and participation by all involved. Cheryl’s Project 26 concept very much reflects this spirit.

As a structural foundation, Cheryl proposed each chapter for Project 26 be devoted to a letter of the alphabet, an idea rooted in the avant garde that has been explored by poets including Arthur Rimbaud, Ron Silliman and Louis Zukofsky.

Each participating artist chose a letter, created a chapter based on the letter and mailed copies of their chapter to the other participating artists. Thus, Cheryl successfully utilized the model of the assembling zine, often associated with avant publishing.

This mail-art means of production effectively bypasses the challenges (including costs) of conventional publishing to produce highly personalized, limited edition artist books distributed around the world. For these mail-artists, building a community, regardless of its connection or influence upon the ubiquitous mainstream, is the primary shared value.

Further defining the concept for the participants, Cheryl asked us to envision their individual chapters as part of an encyclopedia of fantastic (and fictional) archaeology. This allowed the artists free reign to create entire worlds and artifacts that never existed and make far-ranging references to history and prehistory.

As you can see, they responded with extraordinary imagination, creativity, thoughtfulness and humor. The range of genres from which they draw is remarkable: academic archaeology, popular culture, science fiction, fantasy, psychology, literary and art traditions, history, culture theory, technology – and an amazing synthesis of these forms is achieved.

This book contains entire worlds ranging from species that have evolved on other planets to vast technological conspiracies that might impact our lives on earth. Nearly all the artists have embraced the archaeological metaphor of excavating to discover truths.

They explore the ruins of ancient cultures and glyphs. They delve into epics, building bridges between the archaic and the contemporary. They dig deeply into the nature of language, image, narrative and books. Their discoveries are as fascinating and relevant as the work of scientists and a wonderful contribution to our evolving global culture.

In the spirit of mail-art, please fully engage with Project 26. Do not passively view but enter into this remarkable book with all your senses and your imagination. Your reactions, the thoughts and interpretations it inspires in you are a necessary part of the process and makes you a part of a remarkable international community of artists.

De Villo Sloan

April 25, 2011

Aurora, New York, USA

(revised August 5, 2024)

-sSs-

Asemics by Kerri Pullo (Arizona, USA) (2019) (AF2 Archive)

AF2 placeholder

AF2 Commentary: "Eco-Asemics" (revised) by De Villo Sloan

 

By De Villo Sloan (Moravia, NY) (June 9, 2017) (AF2 Archive)

Eco-Asemics

 

By De Villo Sloan

 

 

During the Asemics 16 global, collaborative book arts project circa 2012, participants initially discussed online their thoughts about asemic writing. Project Coordinator Cheryl Penn and I saw this phase as essential during the time when the artists and poets were likely to commence their creative work.

In particular, many images of natural phenomenon and processes were shared that suggested language and textuality. These were “nature pictures” from a diversity of environments, most of them removed from the realm of human activity and habitation. We also agreed upon the use of the term “asemic-suggestive” to describe Eco-Asemic phenomenon. The aesthetic range was wide.

These images quickly became popular discussion topics among the artists. Eco-Asemic image shares grew more compelling; some discovered beauty and others studied and observed decay. Either little or no human intervention was involved in these asemic finds, other than the artists seeing the texts/and symbols in nature, a use of imagination.

Searching for the asemic-suggestive in nature became so central in our discussions at one point that I began calling this asemic genre “Eco-Asemics” as convenient shorthand. As in this post, the primary means of sharing Eco-Asemics was and still is through photo and video. Certainly, other possibilities are employed.

Eco-Asemics are inherently Found Asemics; however, Found Asemics frequently involve human activity and even human desecration of nature.

Eco-Asemics examine nature and natural processes that are removed from the impact of human-centered activity as much as is possible. Thus, Eco-Asemics also explore the archaic roots of language, symbols and written text as it surely connects to human contact with nature.

We constructed this definition of Eco-Asemics by following the paths of artists and writers who are involved in this genre. They are drawn often – certainly not always though – through a reverence for and a communion with nature.

Many who investigate Eco-Asemics have said they gain access to the primal origins of language and sign-making. The experience has a profound impact upon their work.

 

De Villo Sloan

June 12, 2017

Auburn, New York, USA

(revised August 3, 2024)

-sSs-

AF 2 Commentary: Introduction to Asemics 16 Edition #5 (revised) by De Villo Sloan

 

Vispo collab by Laura Ortiz (Canada) 

& De Villo Sloan (USA)

(2021-4 remix) (AF2 Archive)

Asemics 16 Collaborative Mail-Art Book Project

 

Introduction to Asemics 16 – Edition #5

 

Asemic Syntax

 

By De Villo Sloan

 

 

In this fifth edition of the Asemics 16 collaborative book project, we asked contributors to address the concept of syntax in asemic writing. Our original intention for Asemics 16 was four editions (16 artists in each book). We have added this fifth edition as an encore and fond farewell to a most memorable effort.

Asemics 16 editions document diverse approaches to the creation of written texts whose symbols do not disclose meaning through the conventional process of reading. Thus they are considered devoid of content (a structuralist’s dream of form without content?). In linguistic terms, asemic writing creates conditions where the relationship between the signifier and signified has been irrevocably severed; even codes are not fair game for the core text.

In the same way the marvelous work by the contributors to Edition #5 creates (anti-)languages and/or distorts and fractures existing languages beyond recognition. The shadows of larger structures that bind the (anti-)symbols together appear in the work. We can imagine asemic punctuation, asemic grammar, guides for linearity (for example Cheryl Penn (South Africa) experimented with writing backwards) and the simultaneous production of neo-glyphic forms. Asemic syntax mirrors the structures of languages and their written representations but in no way provides content. (What then are we to make of asemic fiction?)

The work in this edition shows clearly a traditional connection between asemic writing and concrete poetry, a shared interest in the materiality of written language. Brion Gysin’s formative work, following his (claimed) expulsion from the Surrealist movement by Breton, provides an historic checkpoint for the Asemics 16 artists.

Gysin’s later asemic writing evolved from his calligraphy using Arabic and Japanese. Combining the Arabic and Japanese symbols naturally produced grid structures: A move toward creating asemic syntax as well as the distinctive abstract structures we associate with concrete poetry; grid structures are used frequently in concrete poetry. An important point is they are grounded in syntax. The concept is clearly articulated in this asemic painting by Cheryl Penn:

Detail of an asemic painting 

by Cheryl Penn (South Africa)

(AF2 Archive) 

The work in Asemics 16 – Edition #5 expands and extends this tradition. You will find expressions of syntax and poetics on the pages ahead. You will likely recognize larger structures suggestive (but not limited to) paragraphs and stanzas. Many explore linearity through horizontal, vertical, or more ironically, organic, circular or geometric patterns. These are shared interests of the asemicists in this edition, and we benefit from their efforts.

The frequent use of “overlaying” text, derived from visual poetry, offers other possibilities for asemic syntax. Ideas for asemic poetry are presented. This is a remarkable collection. Each time you engage, you will discover more.

 

De Villo Sloan

November 16, 2011

Auburn, New York, USA

(revised August 2, 2024)

-sSs-

AF2 Commentary: Vispo Collaborative Book Introduction to Edition #1 (revised) by De Villo Sloan

From Meta Poetry by Cheryl Penn 

(South Africa) (2019)

(AF2 Archive)

Visual Poetry Collaborative Book Project

 

Introduction to Edition #1

 

By De Villo Sloan

 

In December 2011, Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and I placed a call through the international mail-art network inviting artists and writers to contribute a chapter each for a new visual poetry collaborative book project we were hosting. Responses were enthusiastic, warm and generous.

This first edition includes work by Matthew Stolte (Wisconsin, USA); Guido Vermeulen (Brussels, Belgium); Bernd Reichert (Brussels, Belgium) and Diane Keys (Illinois, USA). They have already made substantial contributions to visual poetry.

We were pleased to be joined by veteran mail-artists Katerina Nikoltsou (Thessaloniki, Greece) and Richard Canard (Illinois, USA). Cleveland Wall (Pennsylvania, USA) is an accomplished poet; Victoria Barvenko (Tagenrog, Russia) is a Fluxus artist. Janine Weiss (Boudry, Switzerland); Rebecca Guyver (Suffolk,UK) and KDJ (Florida, USA) are among the artists in the book who have ventured into the visual poetry realm for the first time. This diversity of talent and perspectives has coalesced to produce a stunning and cohesive overview of the many nuances of contemporary visual poetry.

Co-coordinator Cheryl Penn – book artist, painter, visual poet – did her graduate research on artist Ray Johnson and his New York Correspondence School, which in the 1960s established the foundation of today’s global mail-art community. Based on mail-art’s shared values of inclusion and collective activity, Cheryl has developed and refined a highly effective process for making artists’ books.

These editions include the work of numerous contributors and bypass publishing snares related to editorial decisions, production and distribution. The success of this process is evident in the five editions released in the previous Asemics 16 project as well as this edition.

Having a meeting place in cyberspace has been invaluable to this project. The International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA), founded by Ruud Janssen (Breda, Netherlands), served as an ideal headquarters for the project.

For decades, mail-art has been a conduit and safe haven for concrete poetry, visual poetry, haptic poetry, object poetry and asemic writing, among others. Visual poetry (also known as vispo) might well be the most popular of these forms today, especially since it has received a positive reception in universities. Yet it is among the most difficult to explain. Given the diversity of artists in the project, we found it essential to provide an operational definition. Cheryl’s concept that each contributor’s chapter would be an homage to a favorite artist or visual poet provided thematic coherence. Their choices and methods of honoring historic figures are a fascinating aspect of the book.

At least one strain of visual poetry we see now evolved directly from concrete poetry pervasive in the 1960s and 70s (although its historical roots are far deeper). Also known as (with qualifications) typewriter art and pattern poetry, concrete poets often share a materialist view of language. In traditional concrete poetry, the poem's words and subject determine its shape on the page, re-defining form in terms of visual image rather than more traditional means such as sonnets or sestinas, to name two among thousands. Yet even traditional poetry is associated with certain configurations of text on the printed page.

The boundaries of concrete poetry were soon shattered in the 1980s and 90s, in the Age of Xerography, when poets experimented with image-textual integration, visual writing, abstraction and dense overlays as well as minimalism that fractured basic elements of the alphabet (or bypassed the whole thing by inventing new anti-languages through asemic writing). The Digital Age, in turn, has opened more opportunities for visual poetry than ever before in photography, image-text integration and arrangement, image and text access, video, 3-D and much more.

Cheryl and I left decisions about definitions of visual poetry to the artists as much as possible. In the discussions that did arise, we emphasized integration of text and image that is composed using concepts of poetics or the poetic, awareness of structure and visual syntax. (We had a number of interesting discussions with some of the artists about organic form.) Thus, we expected work ranging from text-oriented and similar to concrete poetry to pieces presenting images, where words and writing are absent.

One of the more difficult concepts to convey is the possibility of poetry completely devoid of the printed, written or spoken word: a paradox to some and a total contradiction to others. Yet views of language and poetics as abstract structures, where a syntax of visual images is possible, for example, opened the door. We are also faced with the intriguing question: Can the poetic be expressed without words and conventional forms? Our visual poets give us an affirmative reply.

The work in this edition reveals a wide range of approaches and styles; however, most of the artists choose a middle-ground, using both text and image to explore symbol relationships, build structures and explore possibilities for expression. For me, this is one of the most important contributions of the edition and one which I hope readers will examine closely.

We have an occasion in this edition of artists, writers and visual poets engaged together in exploring a terrain that is still largely uncharted. They look to figures who inspired them for sources and explanations. We find beauty and innovation and, above all else, an affirmation of the power of human expression.

 

De Villo Sloan

Auburn, New York, USA

April 21, 2012

(revised August 1, 2024)