For the second edition of the bleed, we elected to focus on a particular strain of contemporary visual poetry: asemic writing.

Anyone with more than a passing familiarity with etymology may well see that first word—asemic—and feel a consternated wrinkling migrate slowly across the brow. You may well realize that asemia is a medical condition in which the sufferer is unable to comprehend or even produce speech or signs. It is, in essence, the total eradication of semantic meaning.

And, yes, asemic writing is the literary-artistic—or to some, post-literary—practice of “writing” without meaning. Or at least, without the “meaning” we associate with standard written communications. Instead, asemic writing tends to rely on the fundamental characteristics of written communications at an abstracted level, a disassociated level, at which the familiar orthographic and typographic symbols are reduced to shapes and forms. At this level, these shapes and forms attempt to communicate on more fundamental, often emotional levels. In fact, the most obvious artistic analogy is abstract art, particularly abstract expressionism, of which asemic writing may be the literary manifestation.

But we could go on and on about what asemic writing may be and never give you, dear reader, so clear an idea of its goals, methods, and techniques as you’ll get from perusing a few pages of it.

So why not check out this …

Teaser edition of the bleed 0.2

Then proceed directly to MagCloud to pick up a print copy (or instant-gratification-PDF) of your very own.