Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Concrete Poetry: Place words on a grid so reading can start from any direction
- Type
- Set in Concrete Poetry's manner (One face at one size, emphasis from position and repetition only), and let Graphic Notation's lettering (Few kinds of sign, with the range where one shape holds one meaning) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Concrete Poetry's material (White paper and one black ink, quality carried by register and margin); bring in exactly one thing from Graphic Notation (Line weight mapped to loudness, kept dark enough to print clean).
- Colour
- Build on #f1eee5, #74716a, #151515 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Concrete Poetry When making a shape comes first, the meaning of the words stops answering their position, and the piece is only letters poured into a picture.
- Graphic Notation Freedom claimed without a key or any agreed convention scatters interpretation across players, and the score gets treated as a doodle.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Concrete Poetry (Layout, 1950s–1970s) and its accent from Graphic Notation (Style, 1950s–). Structural cues: Repeated words; Shapes made of letters; Large blanks; Dismantled reading order. Accent cues, used sparingly: The staff abandoned; Instruction by shape and line; Pages open to interpretation; The score as artwork. Composition: Place words on a grid so reading can start from any direction. Type and lettering: One face at one size, emphasis from position and repetition only. Let one material quality come from the second style: Line weight mapped to loudness, kept dark enough to print clean. Mood: Rebellion, Calm, Play. Color: build on #f1eee5, #74716a, #151515 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Concrete Poetry 1950s–1970s / Layout / Experimental Typography
Treats the placement, repetition, blank space and sound of words as the poem itself, not only what they mean.
- Graphic Notation 1950s– / Style / Notation Systems
The scores Cage and Cardew drew when they abandoned the staff: shapes, lines, map-like pages. Opening performance to interpretation rather than instruction, the score itself became visual art.
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