Page 25 - Studio International - December 1968

used by the poet-designer Franz Mon. His poems of
An evaluation words cut or torn through and then replaced with a one hand, and can be animated by flipping the pages
so that the word 'sweethearts' achieves a primitive
slight displacement have a nagging familiar quality cinematic effect in forming moving patterns, crossing
of visual poetry that rarely allows the mind to rest upon any parti- and disappearing to expand into a great square.
cular section while remaining visually on the border- D. S. Houédard lists a number of one-off experi-
in terms of line of meaningfulness. as flicker or flip-poems. The common element that
ments in this line that were never reproduced, such
Examples from the work of a number of poets
illustrate the areas in which word-structures have the above have with Marinetti's book, the blank
movement been extended to incorporate kinetic and other ideas books of H. De Vree (Holland) and R. Charlip
involved in visual poetry. Carlfriedrich Claus's calli- (U.S.A.), the plastic books of Diter Rot or John
graphic build-up of words into fluid suggestive Latham's cut-up books, is a state of visual displace-
shapes is stylistically akin to old Chinese texts and ment forced upon the viewer as he turns the pages, so
his free flowing lines of letters produce an extremely that aesthetically they activate on an art level, dis-
unusual visual language. This combination of style possessed of the usual information transference.
and fantastic imagery with its ambiguous lack of Such book-objects are on the same psychological
reference points between light and dark textures, level as the constructions of Le Parc and others, that
creates a constant focal shift. Seiichi Niikuni pro- stimulate the spectator into an active state of play or
duces a similar effect with a more simple and eco- participation. The Ocean Stripe series and other
nomical style, in his regular shaped poems with their book-poems by I. H. Finlay are more reflective and
haunting haiku-like overtones. A single Japanese literary; nevertheless the realization of each poem
character and some of its parts are usually repeated in depends upon the turning of the pages so that the
John Sharkey blocks so that the subtle movement and delicate few simple words and their invocation of repetitive
arrangement of these characters reinforces the images—generally from nature—accumulate into a
In 1920 Kurt Schwitters declared that 'elements of surprise and incongruity of their meaning. Over the total entity. In the same way a book by Melo e
poetry are letters, syllables, words, sentences—poetry past few years Jiri Varloch has been systematically Castro (Portugal) is so structured that the leaf size
arises from the interaction of these elements'. By the exploring, in a squared or rectangular format, the increases from in. in height until the penultimate
late fifties, in common with the interiorization of other repetitions of single typewritten letters. His kinetic page reveals the same poem that was visible before
art forms, a concrete poem 'is an object in and by texts with their shifting relationships of image and any of the pages were turned.
itself...it deals with a communication of forms, of a after-image, are comparable on their own scale with The introduction of duration as part of the poetic
structure content, not with the usual message many of the graphic works by kinetic artists. Decio process can be extended in a more controlled way
communication'. In the manifesto from which this Pignatari's 0 Organism illuminates a kinetic meta- by cinematic means. However, apart from the most
quotation is taken three Brazilian poets set out the phor through the use of semantically charged fruitful and adventurous area for animated graphics—
main premises. Concrete or visual poetry 'begins by imagery. The cinematic effect that the poet intended film titles—very few experiments have been done in
being aware of graphic space as a structural agent' is increased by his use of a heavily-defined frame creating a total word entity on celluloid, to compare
so words or letters can be juxtaposed, not only in with a climatic jump in type size which speeds up with the films of Norman McLaran (Canada).
relation to each other, but to the page area as a whole. the action and helps to create a mental loop forcing Brownjohn's Midland Bank series and to lesser
The intervention of space into poetry, previously the eye back to the beginning of the poem. degree my own Openwordrobe were attempts in
conceived as linear/formal verse units, brought about Some poets have incorporated the gestalt of a single this direction. Finance, techniques and distribution
a redundancy of verbal elements to 'the least com- poem into book format, so that the speed at which are obvious inhibiting factors in this area.
mon multiple of language...with a tendency to the pages are turned or flipped over controls the However, with regard to constructions known as
nounizing and verbalism'. However, a visual effect overall image. On this level the book becomes an 'poetry-machines' a dilemma on a very different level
is an inherent part of all written or printed matter, object that can be used or manipulated at will and presents itself. Not many of these kinetic construc-
and a large amount of concrete poetry with its use of this aspect of its function is further emphasized by tions that incorporate words or letters, depend upon
simplified language structures just exaggerates or the low information content when considered as a language either as the dominant compositional ele-
utilizes visual possibilities to the extent that the page- data transmitter. Emmet Williams' book Sweethearts ment or in terms of information overflow. Even by
area acts as a frame enclosing the word patterns. It is uses the seven different letters of the title on each using the definition of language as 'any given system
only when the formal elements bear a relationship to page in various permutations. The book starts from of signs' the problem remains of deciding whether
the structure of the total area that a consideration the back cover, it is compact enough to be held in the words or letters unify and integrate the whole
with other art forms is possible.
The non-objective nature of semantic overflow
involved in any arrangements of word-structures
militates against a comparison with kinetics or other
forms that need not do more than transmit aesthetic
information. This difficulty can be overcome by the
expectations brought to bear on the different formats
and also by the ideogramatic nature of much visual
poetry in which totalities are perceived and sense
impressions accepted rather than explored. Even so,
the flat surface and usual 'economic' size of the
printed page—allowing the eye to absorb the total
poem at a glance—present real barriers to any com-
parison. Therefore unless the letters or cyphers are
arranged on the page micro-structurally, any equa-
tion of a poet's intention, rather than the actual text,
and the physiological reaction triggered by a kinetic
work, is specious.
D. S. Houédard, one of the few poets who uses the
typewriter as a medium rather than an instrument,
has produced hundreds of typestracts or 'typewritten
pictures', and Typestract for John Cage is a good
example of the moire effect he often achieves. The
whole surface of the poem consists of a series of ever-
increasing word squares—composed of 'I have
nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry'
—superimposed upon each other and turning with an
anti-clockwise shift. This technique of forcing the
Above, dish blood by Seiichi Niikuni, and
eye to move back and forth over a flat surface,
utilized by Vasarely, Riley and others, has also been left, a Poemkon by Liliane Lijn.