Visual Poetry Glossary

Visual Poetry Glossary

ACTION POETRY: involves the active use of poetry, as live recitals, broadcasting and performance of poems (also known as HAPPENINGS).

BIOPOETRY: initiated by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kac, this recent poetic language involves “the use of biotechnology and living organisms in poetry as a new realm of verbal, para-verbal and non-verbal creation.”

See http://www.ekac.org/biopoetry.html

CALLIGRAM: a piece of writing in which the words are arranged with the aim of representing the subject of the poem; etymologically it means beautiful writing.

See examples from Greek Antiquity at http://www.boek861.com/lib_cozar/p2_c1.htm

CONCRETISM or CONCRETE POETRY: when used as a general term, it designates any shaped poem composed of type. However, historically the term alludes to the work practised since the mid-1950s by certain experimental poets, such as the Brazilian group Noigandres or Gromringer. They pursued maximum expressive efficiency by using the visual substance of language. Their concrete poems incorporated methods, such as derivation and permutation.

DIGITAL POETRY, NEW MEDIA POETRY or E-POETRY: a variety of poetry generated in an electronic environment (also known as CODE POETRY), although it does not necessarily involve a computer as a support, since it can be presented via paper, video, holography or performance. In these variations, computer art and poetry very often overlap. There are sub-varieties such as NET POETRY, E-MAIL POETRY or SMS POETRY, broadcast through the Internet, e-mail and mobile phone text messages respectively.

EXPERIMENTAL POETRY: a generic term referring to a non-versified and non-declamatory type of poetics, which is not linked to the rhetoric and stylistic configuration of “traditional” writing. Above all it refers to practices developed in the second half of the 20th-century.

FLUXUS POETRY: normally created during a performance, it involves the participation of movement, such as cut-up techniques (e.g. the work of Jackson Mac Low); a new exploration of creating meaning. Find further details in Owen F. Smith, “Fluxus, Experimentalism, and the End of Language” in Experimental, Visual, Concrete. Avant-Garde Poetry since the 1960s.

HOLOPOETRY: also initiated by Brazilian poet Eduardo Kac, this poetic language is conceived, made and displayed holographically.

See http://www.ekac.org/keyconcepts.html

HYPERGRAPHY: a process of studying in depth the letter and its sign, and/or the letter and its sound.

LETTERISM or LETTRISM: an art form that emerged in the 1940s, focusing purely on the plastic and phonetic value of the letter.

LINGUISTIC INTERNATIONALISM: the result of language not only being alphabetic, but also including numbers, symbols and sounds.

MNMLST POETRY (MINIMALIST POETRY): a variety of experimental poetry in which the least possible amount of words are used, generally through the use of visual techniques.

See http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/grumman/egrumn.htm

NOMADIC POETRY: a series of visual poems by Giselle Beiguelman inspired by the figurative use of non-phonetic or alphabetic fonts; the titles describe the algebraic equation by which the visual poem has been constructed.

See http://www.poetrica.net/english/poetrica_gb.htm

SYNESTHESIA: faculty of perceiving the sensory data of one sense with another.

PATTERN POETRY: also called figure poetry, shaped verse, or carmen figuratum verse in which the typography or lines of text are arranged in an unusual configuration, usually to convey or extend the emotional content of the words.

See http://www.ubu.com/papers/higgins_pattern.html

POLIPOETRY: a term that refers to any possible technique in creating poetry, including electronic means, associated to a poetic spectacle configured with gestures, lights, vestuario, etc.

SPATIALISM: poetic movement in which the significance of the physical space in visual language is particularly stressed.

SOUND POETRY or PHONETIC POETRY: a variety of poetry in which words are not just a vehicle for meaning, since the composition of the phonetic text is structured in sounds that require an acoustic realization. Due to its experimental nature, the structure introduces phonetic techniques together with other sounds. More recently it has incorporated possibilities offered by electro-acoustic sound, which has received many names such as audio poetry or poem-partiture.

See http://www.merzmail.net/fonetica.htm

TECHNO-POESIA: a generic term that includes all the varieties of computer-generated poetry (also hypermedia and internet), performance poetry and video poetry.

See http://www.wizya.net/publications/davinio.htm

VISUAL POETRY: is the generic term referring to a quite unfamiliar poetic practice, which actually has a long and international tradition. Visual poems are interdisciplinary compositions that reduce language to other values apart from meaning, such as appearance and sound. It explores the tension between the semantics and the visuality of written language. Since text and image are simultaneously seen, the reading of this variety of poetry involves ideographic thinking. Visual poetry is an international, interdisciplinary art form.