Asemic writing is a wordless opensemantic form ofwriting.[2][3][4] The wordasemic/eɪˈsiːmɪk/ means "having no specific semantic content", or "without the smallest unit of meaning".[a] Asemic writing fuses text and image together, while minimising the use of gestures, lines and symbols. Its non-specificity leaves readers to interpret its meaning – such works can have multiple meanings that evolve over time.[5] The open nature of asemic works allows for meaning to occur acrosslinguistic understanding; an asemic text may be "read" in a similar fashion regardless of the reader's natural language.[6]
Asemic writing exists in many different forms. It is often created with a pen or brush, but can range from being hand drawn in the sand with a stick and documented by photography,[7] or to works on canvas, paper, computer images, and animations. The key to asemic writing is that even though it is traditionally "unreadable" it still maintains a strong attractive appeal to the reader's eye. Various asemic writing includespictograms, orideograms the meanings of which are sometimes suggested by their shapes, though it may also flow as anabstract expressionist scribble which resembles writing but avoids words. Asemic writing, at times, exists as a conception or shadow of conventional writing practices. Reflecting writing, but not completely existing as a traditional writing system, asemic writing seeks to make the reader hover in a state between reading and looking.[8] Asemic writing has no verbal sense, though it may have clear textual sense.[9] Through its formatting and structure, asemic writing may suggest a type of document and, thereby, suggest a meaning. The form of art is still writing, oftencalligraphic in form, and either depends on a reader's sense and knowledge of writing systems for it to make sense,[9] or can be understood through aesthetic intuition.[2] True asemic writing occurs when the creator of the asemic piece cannot read their own asemic writing. Relative asemic writing is a natural writing system that can be read by some people but not by everyone (e.g.ciphers,wildstyle, etc.). Most asemic writing lies between these two extremes.[10] Influences on asemic writing are illegible,invented, or primalscripts (cave paintings,doodles, children's drawings, etc.). But instead of being thought of as mimicry of preliterate expression, asemic writing may be considered to be a globalpostliterate style of writing that uses all forms of creativity for inspiration. Other influences on asemic writing arealien languages in science fiction,artistic languages,sigils,undeciphered scripts, andgraffiti.[11] Uses for asemic writing include mental andcreativeidea stimulation,non-verbal communication,meditation,hoaxes, curingwriter's block,privacy, and general authorial self-expression.
In 1997,visual poets Tim Gaze[13] and Jim Leftwich first applied the wordasemic to name their quasi-calligraphic writing gestures.[14][15] The authors explored sub-verbal and sub-letteral forms of writing, and textualasemia as a creative option and as an intentional practice. Since the late 1990s, asemic writing has blossomed into a worldwide literary/art movement. Its popularity has especially grown in the early part of the 21st century, though there is an acknowledgement of a long and complex history, which precedes the activities of the current asemic movement, especially with regards to abstract calligraphy, wordless writing, and verbal writing damaged beyond the point of legibility. Jim Leftwich has recently stated that an asemic condition of an asemic work is an impossible goal, and that it is not possible to create an literary work entirely without meaning. Others such as authorTravis Jeppesen have found the termasemic to be problematic because "it seems to infer writing with no meaning."[16]
Asemic writing occurs inavant-garde literature and art with strong roots in theearliest forms of writing.[17] The history of today's asemic movement stems from two Chinese calligraphers: "crazy"Zhang Xu, aTang dynasty (c. 800 CE) calligrapher who was famous for creating wild illegible calligraphy, and the younger "drunk" monkHuaisu who also excelled at illegiblecursive calligraphy.[18] Japanese calligraphers subsequently expanded upon Chinese abstract calligraphic expression byHitsuzendō (the way ofZen through brush), allowing their works to move past formal presentation and "breathe with the vitality of eternal experience".
In the 1920s,Man Ray, who was influenced byDada, created an early work of wordless writing with his poemParis, Mai 1924.[19] Later in the 1920s,Henri Michaux, who was influenced by Asian calligraphy,Surrealism, andAutomatic writing, began to create wordless works such asAlphabet (1925) andNarration (1927).[20] Michaux referred to his calligraphic works as "interior Gestures". The writer and artistWassily Kandinsky was an early precursor to asemic writing, with his linear pieceIndian Story (1931) exemplifying complete textual abstraction.
In the 1950s, there isBrion Gysin (whose calligraphy was influenced by Japanese andArabic calligraphy),Isidore Isou (who foundedLettrisme/Letterism),Cy Twombly (a former US ArmyCryptologist), andMorita Shiryū/Bokujin-kai Group (Ink Human Society)[21] all of whom expanded writing into illegible, abstract, and wordless visual mark-making; they would help lay the foundation for asemic writers of the future.Mira Schendel was an artist from Brazil who created many illegible works over the course of her life, for example her pieceArchaic Writing (1964).Mirtha Dermisache is another writer who had created asemic writing since the 1960s.[22] Dermisache actively said that even though her graphisms have no meaning, they still retained the full rights of an autonomous work.Angus MacLise was amusician and poet who also created asemic calligraphic works in the 1960s.[23] 1971 was the year whenAlain Satié released his workÉcrit en prose ou L'Œuvre hypergraphique which contains asemic writing throughout the entirecollagegraphic novel.[24]León Ferrari was another artist/poet who created many asemic works in the 1960s and 1970s, such asEscritura (1976).[25] 1974 saw the release ofMax Ernst's workMaximiliana: The Illegal Practice Of Astronomy: hommage à Dorothea Tanning; this book is a major influence on asemic writers such as Tim Gaze, Michael Jacobson,[26] andDerek Beaulieu.[27]Roland Barthes was also involved with asemic writing; he titled his asemic works Contre-écritures.[28][29]Irma Blank was another important contributor to asemic writing.[30]
A modern example of asemic writing isLuigi Serafini'sCodex Seraphinianus (1981). Serafini described the script of theCodex as asemic in a talk at theOxford University Society of Bibliophiles held on 8 May 2009.[31] In the 1980s, Chinese artistXu Bing createdTiānshū, orA Book from the Sky which is a work of books and hanging scrolls on which were printed 4000 hand carved meaningless characters.[32] The 1980s also saw artistGu Wenda begin the first of a series of projects centered on the invention of meaningless, false Chinese ideograms, depicted as if they were truly old and traditional. One exhibition of this type was held inXi'an in 1986, featuring paintings of fake ideograms on a massive scale.[33] Also in China, during the 1990s, an abstract calligraphy movement known as "Calligraphy-ism" came into existence, a leading proponent of this movement being Luo Qi. Calligraphy-ism is an aesthetic movement that aims to develop calligraphy into an abstract art. The characters do not need to retain their traditional forms or be legible as words. In Vietnam during the 2000s, a calligraphy group called the Zenei Gang of Five appeared. To this group of young artists, "Wordless" means that which cannot be said, that which is both before and beyond the specificity of naming. To be without words is saying nothing and saying everything.
Satu Kaikkonen, a contemporary asemic artist/writer fromFinland, had this to say about asemic writing:
As a creator of asemics, I consider myself an explorer and a global storyteller. Asemic art, after all, represents a kind of language that's universal and lodged deep within our unconscious minds. Regardless of language identity, each human's initial attempts to create written language look very similar and, often, quite asemic. In this way, asemic art can serve as a sort of common language—albeit an abstract, post-literate one—that we can use to understand one another regardless of background or nationality. For all its limping-functionality, semantic language all too often divides and asymmetrically empowers while asemic texts can't help but put people of all literacy-levels and identities on equal footing.[34]
Bruce Sterling comments about asemic writing on hisWired magazine blogBeyond the Beyond:
Writing that doesn't have any actual writing in it whatsoever. You would think that this must be some kind of ultimate literary frontier, a frozenAntarctica of writing entirely devoid of literary content, but I wonder.What is "beyond asemic writing"? Maybe a neural brain-scan of an author *thinking about* asemic writing. Maybe *generative asemic writing*. Maybe "asemic biomimicry". Maybe nanoasemic writing inscribed with atomic force microscopes by Artificial Intelligences.[35]
False writing systems are artificially constructedalphabets or scripts used (sometimes within the context of a false document) to convey a degree ofverisimilitude. Examples of this include alien dialogue in comic strips,animated cartoons, andgraphic novels (such asAlan Moore'sThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and theValérian and Laureline series).The script inLuigi Serafini's 1981Codex Seraphinianus was confirmed by the author to have no occult meaning. TheVoynich manuscript uses anundeciphered writing system which some have speculated to be a hoax.
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