Page 27 - Studio International - February 1966

The whereabouts of Concrete Poetry

particularly to the sort of permutational poetry explored distorted, could be produced from a source other than
to some extent in the first instance by Gertrude Stein, a literary one.
and more recently by Abraham Moles, as well as Josef Strangely enough, since the term 'concrete poetry'
Hirsal, where the permutational transition takes one was coined in 1953 and first used by the Noigandres
from the word-freedom in one language to that in Group and Eugen Gomringer it has become the first
another. Permutation is also significant in the work of international poetry movement, with exponents in
Augusto de Campos, although here the semantic Japan, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Great
content is probably of greater importance. The semiotic Britain, France, Scandinavia and Switzerland.
poems of Luiz Angelo Pinto are also based on a system The term, however, is often used very loosely. If one
of permutations of several simple elements for which a were to stick to the strictest definition, which implies the
lexical key is provided. Since semiotic poems are use of a structural code system and where improvisation
reduced to a small number of relationships between exists only within certain boundaries, then the number
predetermined signs, they can often be the most direct. of exponents of concrete poetry would be very limited.
Semiotic poems, of course, have no phonetic Most concrete poets produce a certain amount of work
possibilities. which would fit the exacting criteria of the movement,
At the other extreme the phonetic poems of Henri but many often diverge into the realms of visual poetry,
Chopin have no connection with the visual aspect of equally involved with the awareness of graphic space,
concrete poetry. Their relationship to literature is also but also making certain allowances for the idiosyn-
very tenuous since the finished product on record or cratic and sentimental. q
tape, on which the voice has been superimposed and

Concrete Poetry
notes by Professor Max Bense, which appeared in the original version as a preface to Concrete Poetry International,
ROT 21, Stuttgart 1965
concrete poetry is not concrete poetry is
concrete poetry is not involved with grammatical or consecutive concrete poetry is based on the visual relationships of various
linear relationships of words, either from a semantic or elements and their relationship to the flat two-dimensional
an aesthetic point of view space within which they are contained
it is not constructed in the sort of sequence in which words the association of words or syllables, letters and sounds, is
follow each other in our consciousness primarily perceptual
it is not used primarily as an intentional vehicle of meaning the word becomes a gestalt element—being used as material,
in such a way, that the semantic and gestalt aspects
concrete poetry does not separate the various are combined, supplementing each other in both meaning
different aspects of communication and structure

aesthetic and semantic functions of words (based on their
physical properties and linguistic elements) according
both to analytical and synthetic possibilities, express the
essential aesthetic qualities of the language
a sign which can be transmitted, perceived and comprehended
becomes a communication schema. this schema can be quite
specific, which is the case in concrete poetry and concrete
texts generally. since there is a definite similarity with
the layouts and typographical arrangements of posters, it
follows that the communication schema of concrete poetry
approaches that of advertising
in concrete poetry the key sign or element functions both
as a polemic and a manifesto
concrete poetry communicates simultaneously on a number
of levels, the purely visual, its semantic and phonetic
associations, and the combination of all three.

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