Asemic Writing

On Monday I attended a workshop on Asemic Writing with Martin Brook. I enjoyed myself.

I know what Asemic Writing is and have used it a bit in my work, but not extensively or in anything that I've shared That I solely created. I did do it all over the collage we made in the workshop last year with Melanie Jackson (link here) but none of it made it into the "book" that was created. Mainly because as I do not use a mobile, I was not able to take or share photos immediately to the drive where they were being published. And everyone tends to only take photos of what they did... as one does.

I was quite surprised with the broad scope of how it can be used. Martin had many examples (he'd been in the room creating all morning) of ways to use it. I hadn't thought about going past using "writing" on top of other work or as a part of a work. I was treating it like text or captions, or just an accent to piece.

The definition for Asemic Writing he gave us is:

"Writing without meaning, non-romantic open to interpretation."

"What lies beyond our familiar structures of meaning."

In the examples it went past "writing" into "mark-making." I see those as separate functions with overlap - everything is mark-making, but writing is more specific. In my mind it should LOOK like writing, but a lot of what was being done and shown as examples, I would never have thought of as asemic writing without having been told it was.

I wasn't prepared for the messiness of the materials and processes he was encouraging in the workshop on large paper with splatter and paint, pastels, etc. I'd taken a sketchbook so I worked in that, and experimented with using the pastels as carbon paper, masking off edges, etc. I also used acrylic and India inks with a feather (both ends) and brushes, as well as the markers and pens I had brought with me.

There is a second part to the workshop this coming Monday so I signed up for it, and will be taking my smock so I can play with the messy stuff!

Here are photos of what I created in the workshop. Some I really like, others are okay, and of course a few are total duds. 

And, as a couple people commented on how they liked the masking tape I was reusing as I worked, I saved the pieces in my book. Maybe I'll save ALL my masking tape throughout the year and make something out of it?

And, these are the old book pages I used as blotting paper... what heck, I'll keep them too! LOL, probably will use them in other projects I'm working on that aren't related to my MA.