More on the Allforabit

"and for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no need of such vanity" (Dogberry, Much Ado About Nothing, III.iii. 20-21)

(image sourced from the interview with Nico Vassilakis conducted by Tom Beckett - http://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2008/05/tom-beckett-interview-with-nico.html)

Thinking the orientation of the page and the order of reading of the page. Left to right. Right to left. Top to bottom. Bottom to top. Might it even be looking down ‘upon’ the page (as a carpet). Up at (as a ceiling)? Multi-angular reading.

Thinking the scale of typography. The impact of larger font but how spacing and orientation can disperse reading – the letter looms, the sense fades. Smaller fonts acquire an occult quality – the small print – a significant whisper.

Thinking visual structure. Chanced upon material (guitar chord boxes) is integrated and offers a visual compositional logic: a rectangle composed of rectangles (a Sol LeWitt series). Thus 18 mini texts integrate into a larger text. Also the grid connotes structure, order, arranged information but also games, possible moves, strategy, play. Power’s alliance with the Ludic. And this is Language: grammar rules to be (AB)used. A life sentence in sentences.

Thinking chord boxes: sound given visual form; note values and terminology – EGBDF … ACE

Thinking the use of coherent sentence with discrete lexical items. How do they integrate? Lexical items are split apart by syllable or juxtaposed as if to create meaning. Whereas a statement is heavily enjambed allowing syllables to trigger the eye into multiple possible readings: en/dl/es/sl/y/th/e/lif … . Thus the sound and visual dimensions of writing are dissected.

Thinking the levels of reading – how the eye(s) move across the page. Where does it/they hold? At what point do letters surrender their inky printed shadow and ‘vanish’ sublimed into The Word? (And subsequently into the phrase, the sentence?).

Thinking the need to make sense. The central band of letters: B H O A M D E K R C T U. Always this compulsion to normalize, make sense of. Extends beyond the page: the World as Anagram. Francisco: “Stand and unfold yourself” (demand of the password in anticipation of the low ghost of The Father). Identity as anonymity – the excerpted Go game commentary where players are identified by letters of the alphabet.

meanwhile …

9:00-12:00 Exam invigilation. The premise of examinations: that Knowledge can be expressed, assessed through the written word. One hundred and eighty bodies writing. Millions of hand & finger movements. The flows of ink taking shape as words. Strings of thought. How will they be read? Which examiner reads every word of a script? As the saying goes: following the criteria to the letter.

The varieties of physical posture. Writing as a kinaesthetics. Cross legs, lotus position, the angles of elbow and head. The different rhythms – a constant movement left to right or sporadic fits and starts. The dip and lift of the head.

Authoritarian Silence cannot mute the tap of pen tops, scratchings of nib on paper, the shuffling of sheets. Sequence from Wenders’ Wings of Desire: the hubbub of voices the Angels overhear.

Around the walls the magnified letters of the alphabet, rows A … B … C … D … . Desks in a grid: 10 x 18. Beneath our feet the floor of the gym is an elaborate (for me arcane) geometry of lines and boxes. I distribute ruled sheets from blocks of A4 paper. A student's T-shirt reads: You Are Here.