Module 9: Concrete Poetry

Concrete - VisualPoetry                 

         rapid communlcation

http://www.gardendigest.com/concrete/index.htm

"Invented" in the 1950's by Eugen Gomringer and at almost the same time, by the Noigandres Group in Brazil although with significant design focuses.  Gomringer of Austria was more into the form while the Brazilians were into the social and political statements. As quoted by Johanna Drucker:

              "...In Concrete poetry, visual performance is the work."

http://mason.gmu.edu/~stichy/564week13.html

Guillaume Apollinaire's book "Calligrammes" is another important influence.

This style has been around for a long time. Here is an early example before the phrase was coined in our modern day:



Simias Rhodius, "Wings of Eros in Theocritus / Eidullia Theokritou Triakonta" ca. 325 B.C.
http://www.ubu.com/historical/early/early02.html
See other examples at http://www.ubu.com/historical/early/index.html which includes the famouse "Easter wings" by George Herbert, "Easter Wings / The Temple" Cambridge, 1633 .

Max Bill and Öyving Fahlström originated the term in the early 1950s.

Eugen Gomringer

You can feel at a glance the total silence surrounding the blank "silence." It is overwhelming.

Author: Eugen Gomringer, "Silencio" ("Silence"), 1954.

Source: Concrete Poetry: An International Anthology 1967, by Stephen Bann. London Magazine 1967

http://www.educationdigitalmedia.com/view/13

Author: Eugen Gomringer, "Wind", 1953.

Source: Concrete Poetry: An International Anthology 1967, by Stephen Bann. London Magazine 1967

http://www.educationdigitalmedia.com/view/13/41

Augusto de Campos-Leader of the Noigandres Group

Eye for Eye
http://www.ubu.com/historical/decampos_a/decampos_a3.html



Poetamenos (1953) translated
http://www.ubu.com/historical/decampos_a/decampos_a4.html


With it's pulsation like a heart, it vividly portrays the message. You may have to look at it for a while.
hearthead (1980)
http://www.ubu.com/historical/decampos_a/index.html Some more of his work is available here.

Other examples:

I adore this one in watercolor. A great merging of art and words to create an
interplay of design.
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=809&it=1


Tells the whole story with minimal detail.
http://www.sparehed.com/page/53/

For Fun:

Jennifer Kathleen Phillips: visual poetry



http://citwings.com/poetry.html




The mouse's tale in Lewis Carroll's description of a mouse's tale in
Alice In Wonderland.
http://www.philobiblon.com/isitabook/literature/mouse1.gif

Many interesting types of visual poems on this site.

http://www.linkagenet.com/concrete.htm

Subliminal advertising is coeval with concrete poetry...
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/poundstone__project_for_tachistoscope_bottomless_pit/Tachistoscope.html#mainFrame

Concrete Poetry has been around for a very long time and in different forms. Today they are being used with all the different technologies to create even more powerful visualizations.  Text and the visual become "one form" and this was part of the postmodern quest of the expression of ideas and concepts.