8/9/2019 Marco Giovenale_ On Asemic and Vispo

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marco giovenale

on asemic & vispo

from a post by mg@ http://groups.google.it/group/asemic, Aug., 2010

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exploring the page http://thenewpostliterate.blogspot.com/I can see/say thatthe pieces by Lin Tarczynski seem to me asemic works, not visual norconcrete poetry, because I cant recognize any known alphabetical sign inthem, nor an even distorted or unintelligible sentence. that said, they seemalphabetical stuff, though.

also, I think the border between asemic text and abstract art is thin, and if vispooften seems to be mixed with abstract stuff, asemic seems to be abstract art.

this is because (in my opinion) at a first glance you can often tell the vispo from

the abstract, while its more difficult to tell the asemic from the abstract.

I may be wrong, but I think that when one recognizes symbols as aphabets,series of words, fragmented sentences, twisted letters, the brain starts putting allthe letters and symbols etc on one side of its conscience. while if you dontperfectly recognize letters, but you suspect they are, your brain worksdifferently, and it seems like you are never completely sure if youre staring at anunknown language or not (so that one can say theres some sort of floatingopinion/judgement about the nature of the object youve seen.)

this also happens when one meets languages one doesnt know; theres afascinating echo in Arabic calligraphy for example, we all made this experience.its a poor example, ok. but it seems to me I can say Im looking at the Arabiccalligraphic drawritings as if they were sort of asemic writing (while only an Arabcould tell me hey this is a piece of poetry or no, man, these are meaninglessdoodles, they only resemble words.)

our language determines our approach to the images: if we even partiallyrecognize & decipher the language, we tend to see [it is] text (and/or vispo). if

we dont, we still suspect theres some text (but we say its asemic to us.)

8/9/2019 Marco Giovenale_ On Asemic and Vispo

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now, going back to http://thenewpostliterate.blogspot.com/and consideringthe beautiful photos by RC Miller, I think that the first one is something

standing on the border between asemic and abstract, but its not so simple forme to think its actually vispo. while the second piece is almost clearly vispoand asemic (in my perception of the image.)

the third photo is more abstract than asemic, I must admit; and its hard for meto say it can be labelled as vispo. the fourth is enigmatic, since it seemssomething like a pure ideological message : I could translate this message asIm just deleting the *perspective* of the written language.

but its my translation. the artists intention may be different, I dont know. bythe way, since this photo is to me ideological (or too clear in its message,)

I feel Im a bit less involved into its beauty (if this be the right word.)

is this piece asemic or vispo? its an asemic statement made by vispo means(blurred letters,) I suppose.

now.

I choose one piece from my little archive http://vispostock.blogspot.com

I take this one: http://bp2.blogger.com/_U_M2FoLGxKE/Rs0G0dH-ZMI/AAAAAAAAAvU/xwfNrPDIGGI/s1600-h/017.jpg(vispo/concrete.)

it comes from a collab series I made with Jim Leftwich. I now work on the pieceand (simply twisting & superimposing two or more versions of the same work) Imake this rough one: http://foffof2.blogspot.com/2010/08/017as0.html (moreabstract) and this strange one:http://foffof2.blogspot.com/2010/08/017as1.html (more asemic, maybe)

ok

then I take this one: http://bp0.blogger.com/_U_M2FoLGxKE/RsrrTtH-Y3I/AAAAAAAAAsw/6UgmzljozCc/s1600-h/from+p.ganick_2.jpg(vispo.)Its a collab with Peter Ganick.

and I make this hyper-yellow one:http://foffof2.blogspot.com/2010/08/98273n.html (asemic)

thats what I wanted to say about asemic/vispo, for now: asemic & vispo comefrom the same family (sometimes theyre cousins, sometimes twins.)