![GrammeS_-_Ultra_Lettrist_hypergraphics](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/GrammeS_-_Ultra_Lettrist_hypergraphics.jpg)
Hypergraphy, also called hypergraphics or metagraphics, is an experimental form of visual communication developed by the
Lettrist
Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture ...
movement.
Hypergraphy abandons the phonetic values communicated by most conventional written languages in favor of an aesthetically broadened form. Given its experimental nature it can include any visual media. However, hypergraphy most commonly consists of letters, symbols, and pictographs.
Conception
Hypergraphy is rooted in the core Lettrist concept that every major arena of human interaction, whether it be
literary
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
or
economic
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
, follows the same basic pattern. A paradigm is introduced into a system and iterated upon until all possibilities are exhausted (this is deemed the
amplic phase), at which point the only path forward is to deconstruct the system down to its most granular elements (the
chiseling phase). Once the system has been fully deconstructed, the pieces are set into a new paradigm and the cycle begins again.
According to Lettrist painter
Maurice Lemaître
Maurice Lemaître (aka Moïse Maurice Bismuth) (23 April 1926, Paris - 2 July 2018) was a French Lettrist painter (known for his use of Hypergraphy), filmmaker, writer and poet. Lemaître was Isidore Isou's right-hand man for nearly half a centur ...
,
James Joyce's Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
marks the apex of the novel and thus the completion of its amplic phase.
Alongside Lettrist founder
Isidore Isou
Isidore Isou (; 29 January 1925 – 28 July 2007), born Isidor Goldstein, was a Romanian-born French poet, dramaturge, novelist, film director, economist, and visual artist who lived in the 20th century. He was the founder of Lettrism, an art ...
, Lemaître set to work on creating hypergraphic novels to begin the process of deconstruction.
Features
The chief means through which hypergraphy deconstructs language is by separating sound from meaning, abandoning the constraints imposed by the encoding of phonetic values. The resulting visual form, no longer tasked with conveying this phonetic information, is free to expand on the aesthetic plane. Rather than using words to signify ideas, the ideas can be more directly signified by pictographs or symbols from other sign systems.
Traditional syntax is replaced by a two-dimensional plane in which select three-dimensional properties not possible with conventional orthography can be utilized (for instance, overlapping elements or perspective lines to indicate depth). With these additional dimensions available, the
deictic
In linguistics, deixis (, ) is the use of general words and phrases to refer to a specific time, place, or person in context, e.g., the words ''tomorrow'', ''there'', and ''they''. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed but their de ...
relationships between
signifiers becomes a new channel for conveying information.
This innovation in the visual mode is inherently idiosyncratic, symbols and meanings varying from person to person with no standard source of truth. While this quality of hypergraphy ostensibly furthers the goal of deconstructing language by separating public language from private language, it also presents the largest obstacle to scalable adoption.
See also
*
Asemic writing Asemic may refer to:
* Asemia
Asemia is the term for the medical condition of being unable to understand or express any signs or symbols.
It is a more severe condition than aphasia, which is the inability to understand linguistic signs. Asemia i ...
*
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...
*
Maurice Lemaître
Maurice Lemaître (aka Moïse Maurice Bismuth) (23 April 1926, Paris - 2 July 2018) was a French Lettrist painter (known for his use of Hypergraphy), filmmaker, writer and poet. Lemaître was Isidore Isou's right-hand man for nearly half a centur ...
*
Psychogeography
Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes. It was developed by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International, which were revolutiona ...
*
Rammellzee
Rammellzee (stylized RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ, pronounced "Ram: Ell: Zee"; December 15, 1960 – June 28, 2010) was a visual artist, gothic futurist "graffiti writer", painter, performance artist, art theoretician, sculptor and a hip hop musician from Ne ...
References
{{reflist
Further reading
* Curtay, Jean-Paul: ''Lettrism and Hypergraphics: The Unknown Avant-Garde 1945-1985'',
Franklin Furnace Archive
Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. is an arts organization-in-residence at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Since its inception in 1976, Franklin Furnace has been identifying, presenting, archiving, and making avant-garde art available to the p ...
, New York, 1985
* Bohn, ''From Hieroglyphics to Hypergraphics" in'' Experimental - Visual - Concrete Avant-Garde Poetry Since the 1960s'', 1996
* Acquaviva, Frédéric & Buzatu, Simona (eds): ''Isidore Isou: Hypergraphic Novels – 1950-1984'', Romanian Cultural Institute, Stockholm, 2012.
*Hussey, Andrew: ''The Strange and Enchanted Life of Isidore Isou'',
Reaktion Books
Reaktion Books is an independent book publisher based in Islington, London, England. It was founded in 1985 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved to London in 1987. Reaktion originally focused on the fields of art, architecture, and design. In recen ...
, 2021
Lettrism
Artistic techniques
Hypertext
Infographics
Psychogeography