Concrete poetry by necessity involves a reduction of language. Emotions and ideas are not the physical materials here and so it is the language itself that is dismantled in terms of form, design and function. Significant also was the new relation to space; no longer an impermeable yet impotent backdrop against which text must rigidly stand, the new writing broke out and into the areas all around the text, allowing the eye to form patterns of its own and the mind to make new, independent inferences. In so undermining the security between word and page, concrete poetry also dislocated word from meaning and furthermore, destabilised the traditional relationship between the text and the reader.
This then heralds one of the most significant features of the style: In order for meaning to be communicated, the reader must actively engage in the text; deciphering its layout and typography, interpreting its shapes and spaces, viewing the work as an object and thereby playing an active role in its creation.
The discoveries made by this genre were at once progressive and contingent on past experiments, with several sub-genres such as kinetic, spatialist, instamatic and code poetry emerging from within. To trace these developments toward the present day is one road into the crux of the issues surrounding current endeavours in digital technology.
This then heralds one of the most significant features of the style: In order for meaning to be communicated, the reader must actively engage in the text; deciphering its layout and typography, interpreting its shapes and spaces, viewing the work as an object and thereby playing an active role in its creation.
The discoveries made by this genre were at once progressive and contingent on past experiments, with several sub-genres such as kinetic, spatialist, instamatic and code poetry emerging from within. To trace these developments toward the present day is one road into the crux of the issues surrounding current endeavours in digital technology.
