Altered books Part 4: Ex 2 Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry, sometimes referred to as visual poetry, is a form of experimental typography where the use of letter and word arrangements enhance the meaning of a poem. The typographic treatment of words within concrete poetry starts to add additional resonances through their scale, placement, overlay and styling, suggesting new ways to see and say the poem.

Critical Writing Task

Identify an example of concrete poetry and write a short critique of the content, design and the relationship between the content and form. 

How has the use of typography, layout, and space been employed to help generate meaning?

This poem works out well visually. The word block is used to make a 'block', there are other words to be seen such as lack, lock, black and all of these keep the layout organised as the K's are all in line, C's L's and B's so the spacing, kerning and leading is even throughout. This poem also reminds me of a wordsearch, the words you can find in any direction, the deisgn itslef isn't even anything complex but it still an effective and stylish poem. It being in this small block surrounded by an empty page is kin of powerful, the eyes are therefore drawn to just the block as you try to find new formations of the words. The typography is bold serif font, print like and compact, I feel the small text with the spaces inbetween the other letters makes the all lettered lines stand out eg. K and B following down all 13 lines vertically those seem to stand out more than say a line of C's.

Write a brief summary of your thoughts, feelings and reflections on how concrete poetry creates new meanings. 

Concrete poetry I think is another way to showcase Ideas that may be typically created as a visual art piece, It does this but through the use of words, typefaces, shapes and sizes. A concrete poem provides a little more of a challenge for the audience, the way they interpret the form and meaning is different the  if they were to just see a painting. There could be a certain message or pattern to a poem that the artist wants to express but is only obvious after manipulating words or specfic letters. It's an unconventinal way of expressing yourself through typography.

 

I also had a look at some artists who practice Concrete Poetry, at first look I never knew thats what this technique was but I have come across it a few times before unaware it had a name. 

Here are some examples from the artist list

● Dieter Roth

 

● Max Bense

 

● Eugen Gomringer

 

● Ian Hamilton Finlay

 

● Henri Chopin

 

● Öyvind Fahlström

 

 ● Emmett Williams

 

● Geraldine Monk

 

● Mary Ellen Solt

 

● Ilse Garnier

U B U W E B :: Concrete Poetry -- A World View - TABLE OF CONTENTS

Getty Research Institute. (2017). The Getty Research Institute. [online] Available at: https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/concrete_poetry/index.html [Accessed 18 May 2023].

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Exploring Mary Ellen Solt's 1968 concrete poetry:A world View I read a most if not all of the Papers and picked out some good descriptions and methods to the technique. 

Firstly Switzerland where Eugene Gomringer says " Concrete Poetry is quite definitely a test of character. It is comparatively easy to experiment with letters and a few arrangements of words . . . But Concrete Poetry demands a deeper foundation. It must--in my opinion--be closely bound up with the challenge of individual existence: with the individual's 'Life with Language', 'Life with Words'." he also describes the use of direction and playful organisation of the words.

also quoting this fact on the German paper about Max Bense " Professor Bense has contributed most significant insights to the theory of the concrete poem, enlarging our conception of the poem as a language scheme or system that abandons "linear and grammatically ordered contexts" in favor of "visual and surface connectives" making possible "simultaneity of semantic and aesthetic functions of words" so that "meaning and structure reciprocally express and determine each other."

 

Visual Task 

For this task I was asked to choose one typface and a material to experiementally design my own version of the poem​ Tango with Cows​, 1914, by Russian Futurist Vasily Kamensky. Also to explore and experiment with the relationship between the meaning of the text and the form you present it. Think about what kind of typeface you choose as well, does it reflect the
content of the text? How does the paper relate to the design?

 

Poem: Tango With Cows
Life is shorter than the squeal of a sparrow.
Like a dog, regardless, sailing
on an ice floe down the river in spring?
With tinned mirth
we look at our destiny.
We - the discoverers of countries
conquerors of the air
kings of orange groves
and cattle.
 

Perhaps we will drink
a glass of wine
to the health of the comets,
expiring diamond blood.
Or better still – we’ll get a record player.
Well, to hell with you!
hornless and ironed!
I want one - to dance one
tango with cows
and to build bridges
from the tears
of bovine jealousy
to the tears
of crimson girls.

 

First Step of this task I went through the poem dissecting some words, colours, lines and imagery and had a go at visualising them into little images or manipulating the text and thinking of ways I could use them to communicate certain parts. I also found a colour palette through the colours dotted about. "Ice floe" "Kings of orange groves" "glass of wine" "tears of crimson girls" "diamond blood". I also focused on words that I could try visually create such as 'mirth' as being joyful and happy. "Bovine" made to look heavy and slow moving such as an acctual cow would. "Record player" turning in a shape of a vinyl and "crimson tears" in the shape of tears. 

 

There was just a lot of little things I could start experimenting with. But as for the shape and form of the text I looked up the steps of a 'tango' and thought in ways I could postion the text to follow the movements of the dance. The speed of the movements SLOW, SLOW, QUICK, QUICK, (drag) SLOW also resembeld the shape of a river which is mentioned in the third line.

As the poem is about tangoing with a cow I had to experiment with using characteristics of a cow or things associated with cattle. Hooves came to mind as well as them heavy and solid. The patterns of a cow with patches I could use for a background and changing the colours of the text so white text was on the back patches and black text on the white patches.

 I though about using the cow hoof prints in some way, maybe having the wrting wander around each footstep. The tango dance and river flow I merged into one as the bends represent the steps and speed. The only downside to this idea is that there is no indication of cows in the design which I still couldnt figure out how to incoporate.

On this page I questioned the materials and papers I could use to do along with the text. Using a rough green material could represent the grass/field or something plastic like a milk bottle to symbolise a tag on a cows ear. I also considered the colour red for the dress a women would wear during a Tango. In addition to this I breifly touched on the frills of a dress or the figure of a dancer but didnt think ti was practical for the amount of lines of the poem there was.

Finally adding a bit of colour to the 'pattern of the tango' design I picked that as one of my designs i was going to persue digitally. The use of a cows head also popped up where I thought about angling and shaping the text in ways to show the head shape without the actual image of a cow. I moved onto my Ipad were i coudl full manipulate eveything I wanted and changing the typeface.

Some of htese typaces I found on my app procreate and others downlaoded from https://www.fontspace.com/

I chose the typefaces firstly through using a mini mind map in my sketchbook and the n siftingthrough all of the typefaces I had on my ipad. I found a few I liked before choosing only 3.

 

I got a cow head image and placed the poem around trying to leave the space in the shape of the cow, I found it a bit tedious and difficult to move the lines so they'd equally cover the page to make the cow shape but trying to do that aswell as keep the lines flowing in away that you read it in the right order was a challenge. This was jsut a first experiment with the little cow hooves along side.

This typeface 'Hoolgrown' I liked because it reminded me a bit of the 1920s flapper/theature titles or old posters. Although it is a poem about the 'Tango' I just like the odd shape of the letters and how some letters like O overlap with eachother. The shapes are like movement themselves with the curls and flicks. I again used a cows head to fill the shape and gaain fell short with the amount of poem lines so it isnt a full head. Never the less its something different and someone pay interpet it as such.

Another typeface I liked was this one called 'calita' I think its playful yet sophisticated. The style compliments the intamcy of the tango, the mixture of heavy lines and thin lines with the loops also resemble some movement. Its a nice flow, drops down like the 'ice floe' in the river or the 'tears of crimson girls'

This was the closest looking cow head, this would make the poem interactive to an auidence becasue theyd have to trun the page to follow the lines, its fairly easy to read and instead of contiueing round to the very last line using the words as eyes down to the nose and mouth just offers a perspective change and creates a bit more of a full 'cow' image. This text is heavy quite bold which reflects back to one of the keywords I used in describing a cow and its easy to read aswell as see the shape of the head.

 

 

 

Adding colour from the colour palette I created I actually liked the text in black with the odd coloured word rather than the whole thing being coloured it just looks cleaner and a bit more minimalistic.

 

 

Finally going through these designs I had to figure out the background and what materials I'd want to print it and how to make the writing stand out. Digitally I tried a cow print background which I really like the contrast between black and white text on the background.

 

 

 

Part of the planning design process for me I like working in a way I can see and play around with ideas right in front of me, using a sketchbook is helpful but sometimes changes happen and creative flow kicks in when I can change things live. Some ideas from my sketchbook dont always remain the same. During this task I tried communicating a meaning to the text, the ideas throughout the poem were hard to visualise other than the obvious themes of 'tango' and 'cows'. Backgrounds and materials were a tricky one thinking about the poem being printed on. I had go at some rough textured digital background as I dint have them in real life.

My goal for this poem was that I wanted something striking, capturing elements of a cow and the Tango. The intamicy and movement of the dance but also the heaviness and size of a cow. they're were very opposite concepts. Theres nothing too quick or cordinated about a tangoing cow so finding the middle ground I couldnt balance the two without leaning into one theme over the other.

 

Sticking with a rough background one of the papers Iv'e collected has a rough texture and although its not green to replicate grass or red to symbolise the dress of a dancer I liked the feeling and it a nice heavy weight, the texture could even be a cows skin if that background also had the black markings. Its also a little similar to the wall paper Vasily Kamensky uses in his book.

I printed these two designs one being on old faded thin paper with the oppostite black and white patch and text and the rough card for my cow head design that I prefer. Although the cow head is so simple its really effective and the paper texture seems to have made the black ink look a bit more bold.

However a downside of these printed designs is the concept I think they're a bit too obvious. The poem is about tangoing with cows and I have used this as a visual the 'cow' and its features and although I favoured the cow head to print on the rough card I think creatively this design below in the shape and flow of the tango is the best for reflecting the content of the text in a subtle way, it provides a hidden meaning to the poem. 

The material I would of loved to be able to print on would be like a wood say from a barn or cattle shed preferebly red to symbolise a tango dress while having a rural texture.