Exercise 2: Concrete Poetry

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? Print out a copy of the poem and add notes directly onto the page. Write a brief summary of your thoughts, feelings and reflections on how concrete poetry creates new meanings.

As a starting point you may want to look at the following artists who practiced Concrete Poetry:

● Dieter Roth

● Max Bense

● Eugen Gomringer

● Ian Hamilton Finlay

● Henri Chopin

● Öyvind Fahlström

● Emmett Williams

● Geraldine Monk

● Mary Ellen Solt

● Ilse Garnier

To explore concrete poetry in more depth you may want to read Mary Ellen Solt’s

1968 Concrete Poetry: A World View, available via UBU:http://www.ubu.com/papers/solt/

Or research the work of individual visual poets at UBU:http://www.ubu.com/vp/

Visual task

Use one typeface to create a playful design for the Tango with Cows , 1914, by Russian Futurist Vasily Kamensky (poem shown below). 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? Decide on an

appropriate scale and format for this page. Create a series of sketches and ideas, and chose one to develop into your final design. Print your design on one of the papers you have collected in the previous exercise.

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.

Write a short paragraph reflecting on the relationship between the form and content of your design in your learning log.

What is concrete poetry?

Concrete poetry is a form of writing that is experimental and is emphasised by the arrangement of text and space to give a visual meaning to the words. It's different from traditional poetry, as it uses elements such as typography to create a visual representation of the subject. Concrete poetry focuses on the visual aspects, offering an engaging experience for the reader.

Mary Ellen Solt

I wasn't sure if I had to find a poetry from one of the poets below or my own one, so I researched Mary Ellen Solt. I found a few of her poems (see below).

Fig. 1 Forsythia (1966)

Fig. 2 No title (1966)

Fig. 3 A Trilogy of Rain (1970)

Fig. 4 A Clear and Present Danger (2024)

Critical writing task

I chose to write about Mary Ellen Solt's poem "Forsythia" because I was drawn by the shape of the poem. The theme revolves around the plant Forsythia, an easy-to-grow plant known mainly for its striking yellow flowers that bloom in early spring.

“The design of Forsythia is made from the letters of the name of the flowering shrub and their equivalents in the Morse Code. The text is part of the design.” - Mary Ellen Solt

In the poem, the flower symbolises spring and hope. She uses the shape of the Forsythia to visually convey the growth of the plant. The letters from the word "Forsythia" are repeated on each of its branches. Since the plant grows with vibrant flowers resembling spring, it represents vitality and growth.

The typography used in the poem features a serif typeface that helps form the shape of the Forsythia, especially in the way the branches flow, mirroring growth. The letters seem to be uniform in size and are mostly legible, with some overlap. The branches of the plant are arranged to flow upwards and outwards, giving the poem a sense of movement. To read the poem, the reader must follow the vertical arrangement of each branch. This creates a more interactive experience rather than a traditional poetry reading. The spacing between the letters gives a rhythm, making the reader take the time to read the words slowly.

Without the Forsythia shape, the poem would lack meaning. Therefore, the word "Forsythia" takes on its form through the arrangement of the text, representing the essence of the plant.

Concrete poetry changes the language from being purely written to visually engaging. This transforms the act of reading into one of visualisation, making the reader part of the experience. Concrete poetry turns words into objects and actions, instead of being descriptive.

Visual Task

Russian Futurism began around 1910 -1920 and ended shortly after the Russian Revolution. The movement was born of the rejection of traditional art and literature and focused on themes such as modern life, speed and technology. The Russian futurists experimented with language, layout and typography by breaking traditional grammar rules and the arrangement of words. The work they created was unique books, posters and performances using unusual materials such as wallpaper.

Key figures included Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, David Burliuk, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Velimir Khlebnikov and Vasily Kamensky. In their work, words were treated as visual and physical objects, rather than carriers of meaning. It paved the way for experimental typography and early artists' books.

Vasily Kamensky was a Russian poet, artist and aviator, a key figure in Russian Futurism. His most famous work, Tango with Cows (1914), is seen as an early example of artists’ books and concrete poetry printed on wallpaper.

Fig. 5 Tango with Cows (1914)

Tango with Cows meaning

"Tango with Cows" was written during a time of modernisation and change in Russia. The poem does not follow traditional sentence structures, but uses the shape and arrangement of words to convey its message. Inspired by the progress of modern cities, he aimed to mock the wealthy and traditional literature with the Argentine tango, symbolising modern, urban and fashionable culture, with cows, which represent rural, traditional Russian life. This clash between urban and rural elements shows the tension artists of that time felt as they tried to leave the past and look into the future.

Typefaces

I opened InDesign and scrolled through all the typefaces on my computer. I chose quite randomly, trying to include the different categories, like script, sans-serif and decorative typefaces. I excluded serif typefaces because they are seen as traditional, which I'm trying not to convey. I was trying to find fun typefaces that could work for the poem. I put them all into a list below.

I found this quite interesting because, at first, I thought the script typefaces didn't match the poem's mood. I initially thought an Argentine dance theme, thinking the script would convey dancing, but that doesn't really connect with cows! It was challenging to find a single typeface that could represent both dancing and cows, as they evoke very different feelings. So, I chose a geometric typeface, Gill Sans, which was designed in the 1920s. It has a modern and futuristic look. Gill Sans offers many font families, which allows me to experiment with the poem. I felt that a playful typeface wasn't necessary since the poem's layout itself would convey the playfulness.

Sketching and Ideas

In my sketchbook, I experimented with shapes instead of the poem's words. I wanted to get an idea of how I would lay out the poem. I wanted to show the difference between the city, which is crowded and the more sparse countryside.

• Busy urban versus rural quiet

• Modern city with dancing versus traditional farming

• A river flowing out of the urban area into the rural area (connecting the two places)

• Music flows out of urban areas and drifts into rural areas

• Large words take up more space, showing more area

• Movement of text in vertical and horizontal directions to show the city skyline and development into a more modern era (change)

• Blocks of words to show city structures

• Condensed city area with circles showing expansion

Experimentation in Illustrator

I used Adobe Illustrator to experiment with the poem's typography. I started with the city, using vertical and horizontal lines of text to represent its growth. I changed the weight and length of the fonts to give a more skyline appearance. For some of the sentences, I used the same letter to cross over to make it more seamless, for example, Life & Like We and With.

With some of the sentences, I experimented with angles, some sentences were 180 degrees, some 90 degrees or 270 degrees. I did this for the sentence "to the health of the comets." I deconstructed the entire sentence and placed the letters randomly in the sky above the skyline using different weights and sizes.

In the top right-hand corner, I placed the cows to represent the sparse countryside. I deliberately spaced out the words to show the difference between the crowded city and the countryside.

In the middle of the page, I placed the "river" to connect the city to the countryside. I made the text wavy to suggest a river flowing out of the city. The river then flows under an arch-shaped bridge towards the cows.

The bottom left-hand side of the page, "I want to dance one", represents Argentine dancing with a curvy vertical line.

Colours

I wanted to add some colour to the poem and organise the colours according to different areas within it. For example, green represents the cows, symbolising the countryside and their grazing.

Blue represents the comets, the sky and the river. Grey and black signify the city and its buildings. Red symbolises the dancing and the wine.

For formatting and printing, I decided to keep the poem in A4 size, as I don't have access to A3 printing unless I visit a printing shop. However, I believe that A3 would have helped convey the contrast between urban and rural areas more effectively.

I looked at the paper I collected during my last exercise and decided to use tracing paper. I chose tracing paper because it was different, with a greyer look and a thinness that gives it a unique tactile feel, and because the poem is about uncertain change, the tracing paper, with its low opacity, seemed like an ideal paper to illustrate this concept physically. If I had the option to use multiple pieces of paper, I would have layered different sections of the poem to create a story.

Printing on tracing paper was quite terrifying, I was worried the paper might get stuck in the printer. To make it sturdier, I gently stuck the tracing paper to regular A4 copier paper. I also found it challenging to photograph the tracing paper, so I tried hanging it up and using a light box with three different light settings so it wouldn't look like an ordinary piece of A4 copier paper.

Photo taken with a garden background to try to highlight the tracing paper.

Photos taken on a light box.

Black and white version Colour version

Reflection

I had never heard of Concrete Poetry before and I found it fascinating to arrange typography in a way that conveyed visual meaning rather than the traditional words and sentences on a page. It was quite creative to play with the placement of words and letters without worrying too much about alignment, focusing instead on their visual meaning.

I chose one typeface, but one with a large font family so I could use different styles, changing the letters' visual meaning. I experimented with angles, colours, fonts and sentence length to try and support the poem's message of change between traditional Russian life and the new modern city. Sketching ideas in my sketchbook and experimenting in Adobe Illustrator, I was quite surprised to create a visual representation of the poem and chose to print it on tracing paper for a more tactile experience, reinforcing the element of change and the uncertainty that came with it.

References

Bibliography.pdf

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