Concrete Poems
This week we were introduced to concept of concrete poems. Concrete poems involve objects which use words, letters, varying type faces, different colours and space to design and portray meaning of a poem. As Aube and Perloff (2017, p.2) state ‘Concrete poets experimented boldly with language, incorporating visuals, verbal, kinetic, and sonic elements.’ Therefore concrete poetry can really take any form or shape. Many examples can be seen at the exhibition at the Getty Research Institute 2017. Two of the main exhibitors that present here are the Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay and the Brazilian poet Augusto de Campos. Concrete poems started round about the nineteen fifties where this poetry portrayed messages sometimes using acronyms, emojis and even single words. Here are some of my favourite pictures from this exhibition.
Cork/Net, Ian Hamilton Finlay. From The Blue and the Brown Poems (New York: Atlantic Richfield Company & Jargon Press, 1968). The Getty Research Institute, 2016.PR.36. By courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay
This picture is an example of ‘wordplay’ where only a few words are used in a variety of ways and in this example using concentric circles with the words cork, net, ring, price, fish and Hamilton has produced the shape of a net cork which is used in fishing and it makes you think about where does the poem start or end?
Open (Abre), 1969, Augusto de Campos and Julio Plaza. From Poemobiles (São Paulo: Ed. de autor, 1974). The Getty Research Institute, 92-B21581. Courtesy Augusto de Campos / Courtesy Anabela Plaza
This concrete poem uses three dimensions where a pop up object is used to give a different dimension and perspective to the poetry of being open and closed because these are two of the main words used.
Holly Foster’s Concrete Poetry
In today’s workshop, I started to create a concrete poem using my evocative object from last week, which is my gran’s watch that I was left after she passed away. I wanted to portray a feeling of love but also sadness at the same time. I had a choice of wallpapers and I chose a white and red one to symbolise love with the red and white reminded me of emptiness and sadness. I found this task quite tricky as I don’t think of myself as very artistic or creative but we were reminded by Diarmuid that it was completely personal and there was no wrong way of doing it. This reminded me that when I am teaching I should provide the learners with many and varied opportunities to be creative. My role is to provide the materials as a starting point and be a guide for the children but let them lead the lesson in the way in which they intend. As Eisner (2002) and Harris (2016) agree that there are always several answers to the activity within the arts. Therefore pupils can feel more at ease, be willing to take more risks if they realise their answer is one of many and there is no right or wrong. This is a definite way of building self –esteem and confidence within children especially those who have a fear of answering in case of failure and it will encourage a growth mindset. Within the arts there are a lot more of opinions and ideas rather than having prescriptive rules. Therefore this would promote participation from all students and encourage them to be active learners.
Today’s workshop has given me a multitude of ideas that I could use in a classroom setting. These lessons would focus around the listening and talking and the writing poetry outcomes as well as art from CfE.
I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways. LIT 2-28a
Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design. EXA 0-05a / EXA 1-05a / EXA 2-05a
The children could be as creative as they wish by using wordplay, three dimensional poetry, shifting media and even sound concrete poetry where they use their voice with a visual concrete poem to convey the message they wanted. This could be linked to the interdisciplinary learning topic that they were currently working on or it could be used in a one off stand alone lesson where a child has a specific idea and it can be developed.
References
The Getty Research Institute [Online] Available http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/concrete_poetry/index.html [Accessed 21 January 2018]
Scottish Executive (2004) Curriculum for Excellence. Edinburgh
Eisner, E. (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. chapter 4 10 Lessons Arts Teach. Virginia: Integrated Publishing Solutions.
Harris , A. (2016) Creativity and Education. London: Macmillan.
Aube, C and Perloff, N (2017) What Is Concrete Poetry?[Online] Available Blog posthttp://blogs.getty.edu/iris/what-is-concrete-poetry/ [Accessed 21 January 2018]
