Thursday, May 31, 2012

1 from Zhang Xu Not glitched by Tim Gaze



Slightly glitched calligraphy by Zhāng Xù (張旭) taken from a Ukrainian site: seks-ua.livejournal.com/53367.html

Zhang Xu, also known as Bogao at the court of Tang Dynasty. Became an official court calligrapher during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. Born in Suzhou. One of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup.

There is common story of his creative process. He was heavy drinker and every time he'd became drunk, he would use his hair as a brush. After the process and after waking up - he was always confused with the quality of the his work made in a drunk state. Funny thing was that he was unable achieve such quality in a sober state.

According to Han Yutao there are three things that characterize Zhang Xu's calligraphy:

- It's wild. Made on the one breath, in a one moment. There is a flow, a current, parts of which are carved on on a flat-field.

- It's weird and vast. Very unpredictable and very disformed (not deformed). (Compare it to Abstract Expressionism.)

- They got this rock'n'roll snottiness. If look at the calligraphy of the others of the same period - you can find typical "tender beauty" in them. Xhang Xu's calligraphy is the calligraphy of the rolling stones in the fall from the great height. Reader can feel the danger of the sword near him. Reader can feel the threat. The great big thang of the images that actually moove, but inside the readers head.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Nox on the Tracks from Emmalea Russo






Two photos from an installation project that included placing Anne Carson's complex accordion-fold book, Nox on a set of train tracks in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Victor Ekpuk @ Busboys & Poets

Ancient X-files featuring Nick Pelling on the Voynich Manuscript

Nick says: "Much as you’d expect, YouTube user weasel6666 (not me, not even slightly!) has uploaded WAGtv’s “Ancient X-Files” Series 2 Episode 4 “Sodom and Gomorrah” episode that aired on National Geographic UK only a couple of days ago. If you fast forward to 22:00, you can see the Voynich Manuscript half, which is loosely based on reprising the research I did for my 2006 book “The Curse of the Voynich” (copies still available, very reasonable postage rates, etc)."

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Bruce Powe quote from The Solitary Outlaw (1987)

"Literacy: the ability to read and interpret the written word. What is post-literacy? It is the condition of semi-literacy, where most people can read and write to some extent, but where the literate sensibility no longer occupies a central position in culture, society, and politics. Post-literacy occurs when the ability to comprehend the written word decays. If post-literacy is now the ground of society questions arise: what happens to the reader, the writer, and the book in post-literary environment? What happens to thinking, resistance, and dissent when the ground becomes wordless?" --Bruce Powe

Something to ruminate on.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Asemic Computer Font from Tony Burhouse

To download: right click here and choose save as
To install: Opening the file should present you with the option to 'install', if not perhaps just drop it in your fonts folder.
The font features characters for all number and letter keys. mirrored variants of the characters are done by using caps/shift function. characters over-lap and can be positioned using spaces to achieve joining effects.












zZ O - h e L - l E H - o m M n N b - B R T_ t r G = g -v V- - Er Re - y Y -r R- 7 $ - = 4£ -)-=-0 - 3$ = - j0=)J P=p dD D d dD k d i = I D K = -) q Q 0- = = -0 ^ = 6 ) - =