Follow Up Post about Asemic Writing in the Classroom

I thought I'd follow up my post on Asemic Writing in the Classroom with some images of some of the work. (I am now fully aware that I was not using Asemic Writing, but some of the work ends up being Asemic after all)

Today we pulled our first group of prints with a small group of special needs students. Here's what they had to offer:

A second abstract comics exercise

Actually, if you are teaching, or doing this for yourself, this one probably should come first, but I thought the one I posted first seemed a bit more interesting, and, well, eye-catching. Not to mention that I don't really have any images of my own to post here (but I will soon post a collaboration with another one of the contributors here which was made on these principles). Again, this was prepared for an experimental-comics class.

Take a stack of index cards, a bottle of ink, and a mark-making tool. It's best for purposes of this exercise not to get a tool that makes too exact marks, so I'd suggest a sumi-e brush, a dip stick, the dropper from the ink bottle, a rolled-up paper towel, or even your fingers. Make a variety of (abstract) doodles (preferably simpler than too complex) on the blank sides of 24 index cards. Important step: let the ink dry! Then spread all the index cards out before you. How many principles of sequencing can you find for them (sequencing keeping the cards all in the same orientation, i.e. either all portrait- or all landscape-oriented)? You can go from the one with the least amount of marks on it to the one with the greatest number of marks (from white to black, as it were). You can go from the one with the most static composition to the one with the most dynamic composition. You can go from the one with the most horizontal marks (if applicable), to the one with the most vertical marks, etc. When you do this last one, keep in mind that by flipping the cards 90 degrees you can have the marks go up, rather than down (or vice versa). Choose what orientation works best.

Go on to create, based on the same principles, not a simple progression but a formal arc. Go from static to dynamic back to static, and so on.

Let's look at layout: try a variety of formats, beginning with a six-panel page. Choose a sequencing principle, then organize the page also by paying attention to non-sequential (paradigmatic) panel-to-panel relationships. From the remaining cards, make another six-panel page based on the same principle. Make a third, then a fourth. Do the later ones work? Do they possibly work better than the first, because the sequencing principle is not so obvious?

For the final exercise, organize the 24 cards into two 12-panel pages. Make sure to give as much attention to page 1 as to page 2, so, if page 1 works perfectly but page 2 is a mess, you may have to sacrifice part of page 1 to use some of those cards to fix page 2. Once you have settled on two final layouts, tape or glue the cards to a larger piece of paper, then feel free to add marks or remove them (with whiteout), to obtain the most satisfying sequence and layouts possible.

Possible variations:

a) begin with a 16 x 24 piece of paper (an 18 x 24 page from which you cut off a 2" strip). Make marks all over it (including going over the edges). Then cut it into 4" squares and proceed with the exercise as before. This allows you to turn each square every which way, and the marks will have more consistency. Only constraint: panels should at no point end up side-by-side in exactly the same configuration in which they were in the uncut piece of paper.

b) for the final exercise, don't make two 12-panel pages, but only one, choosing the best-fitting 12 cards.

c) as a possible take-home assignment, re-draw the final page on a piece of Bristol board, making any changes you see fit to make it work as an abstract comic.

Abstract Comics Exercise

Here is a classroom exercise I developed for an experimental comics class to get students--or anyone who feels like trying their hand at it--to make a quick and easy first abstract comic.

Draw eight panels on a large piece of paper. (I will, however, demonstrate in digital images). In the first panel draw three distinct shapes. Let's call them 1, 2 and 3.



(obviously the numbers are not going to be in the final image.)

For the next panel, one of the shapes (let's call it shape # 3) stays in place, in exactly the same spot and orientation as in the first panel. Another one of the shapes (let's call it shape # 2) moves to the other half of the panel ("other half" can be defined as you wish--that is, crossing over the vertical, the horizontal, and even one of the diagonal axes), and rotates. Finally, the last shape (let's call it shape # 1), is replaced by a completely new shape (let's call it shape # 4), which you can place wherever in the panel you see fit.



For the third panel, apply the same transformation to panel 2: the shape with the highest number (ie the newest shape) stays put, the shape with the second-highest number changes place and orientation, the shape with the lowest number is replaced with a new shape.



And so on, from panel to panel.

Now, obviously this can continue indefinitely. You can go on for one page, or two, or one hundred. Let's stay with one page for now. To conclude, introduce in the next-to-last panel shape # 1, and in the last panel shape # 2, so that the last panel can flow directly back into the first panel.

Now, there is one more part to this exercise. After you have placed the shapes in all panels, add four (and exactly four) lines to each panel. The lines can be as long as you want, but they cannot curve more than 180 degrees, and they cannot contain more than two curves (i.e., the most complex line you can put in is an S). Of course, they can also be plain old straight lines. Add them to give dynamism (movement lines), to provide a horizon line, etc., but basically to help each panel in some way flow into the next, or give some kind of rhythm to the overall sequence.

Here is my end result (clickable):



Here is the sketchbook page on which I worked this out, a few years ago:



And here is a variation on it, with more lines added, also from my sketchbook:



If anybody reading this feels like trying their hand at it, send me the results, and maybe I'll gather them and publish them as a mini for MoCCA.

BTW, the shapes I used in explaining this have a whole story of their own, but that's for a different post.