Creative Book Design- Part Four: Altered books -Exercise 2: Experimental typography
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
For this task I decided to analyse the work by each artist that initially stood out to me the most (without researching the artist in depth) to see how/what the work makes me feel/think without any other influences. I will then look into my favourites in more depth.
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.
I began this task by researching ‘Tango with Cows’ and it’s author Vasily Kamensky. “Tango with Cows takes its title from a book and poem by the Russian avant-garde poet Vasily Kamensky. The absurd image of farm animals dancing the tango evokes the clash in Russia between a primarily rural culture and a growing urban life. During the years spanning the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, Russia was in spiritual, social, and cultural crisis. The moral devastation of the failed 1905 revolution, the famines of 1911, the rapid influx of new technologies, and the outbreak of World War I led to disillusionment with modernity and a presentiment of apocalypse.
which was published March, 1914 and printed on wallpaper illustrated by David and Vladimir Burlik. "Tango With Cows" is one of, if not the earliest example of concrete poetry, which featured the use of multiple typefaces.”-Getty Art
I came across a good blog which briefly discusses some books by the Russian Avant-garde. I made note of a few comments made about ‘Tango with Cows’ but also about the book- Worldbackwards (Mirskontsa) by Aleksei Kruchenykh. The blog mentions the artists focus on ‘pictographic quality’ and the importance of aesthetic/meaning. This is something to bare in mind when creating my response to ‘Tango with Cows’.
I went onto researching Vasily Kamensky before trying to further understand/analyse the poem. A brief biography of his life describes what sounds like a lonely upbringing, having lost his parents by the age of 5. Kamensky’s fondness of Marxism makes this poem particularly interesting and adds to the anti establishment/nihilistic feel.
I collated a couple of mood boards of artists which I feel demonstrate emotions through material in a sophisticated way. Brac and Villegle with paper and Twombly with pens/pencils and collage. I referred to these when considering how to present my chosen typeface.
In between reading about Kamensky’s life I began to annotate the poem to try and understand it more and think of how to represent it as a single typeface/what size/shape of paper to use. I also noted a few key words that stood out from the poem or that I felt related to it which would also be helpful during the next 2 tasks to refer back to.
I initially viewed this task as only being able to directly print onto a single piece of paper using one typeface but after drawing some quick sketches I thought about changing the paper itself and ended up combining other materials in a collage style.
I chose Universal bold, a sans serif typeface for the poem as it is easily legible and modern. I wanted to show a synergy between new and old/bourgeoisie and proletariat. I chose to focus on the colour orange to relate to the ‘kings of orange groves’ line which I particularly liked, and brown to represent ‘the bottom’. I used water, dirt, acetone and tape to distress the paper and type which gave me interesting results. The inclusion of the tape which picked up some of the type from the paper was an interesting accident. The movement of the text (especially the part being about bourgeoisie) exaggerates a disconnect that I feel Kamensky was trying to present.
I wrote down some ideas/thought processes and included some quick sketches to refer to when experimenting.
The typeface was my main concern, I am unsure whether a sans serif typeface would work as intended (to metaphorically bridge a gap between classes/worlds/feelings when paired with an aged looking paper).
