a timeline
by ottar ormstad
When he wrote Pattern Poetry: Guide to an Unknown Literature (1987), American Fluxus-artist Dick Higgins unveiled how visual poetry has been around for thousands of years, describing “...an ongoing human wish to combine the visual and literary impulses, to tie together the experience of these two areas into an aesthetic whole”.
I started making concrete poetry in the 1960ies. My first poems were published in a collection of so-called “up and coming literature”, called Gruppe 68 (1968), and later in an anthology edited by the Norwegian poets Jan Erik Vold and Kjell Heggelund, called Modern Norwegian poetry (1985).
1.
From the book Gruppe 68 (Cappelen, 1968)
For a long time, I did most of my creative work in the darkroom, developing my own photographs. In 1999 I went to Spain, where I was invited to stay in an artist residence outside of Barcelona, after taking a course in pin-hole photography. I found this to be a perfect place for starting up a new project of visual poetry.
At the time, I had already been wondering for a while why I hadn't seen concrete poetry was developing further, perhaps especially in the Norwegian context. It seemed obvious to me that combinations of the visual and literary impulses must lead to a world of possibilities.
In Spain I started working on my first book: het still (a split up variation of the Norwegian word for silence), as a study of possibilities of visual poetry. I put a word in each corner of every second page. I liked the idea of forcing the reader to move the eyes to jump from one to the next, and consequentially of making it difficult to take in more than one at a time. However, no eventual combination of the four words could be said to constitute a clear sentence.
2.
The book het still (2003)
I’ve been fascinated by yellow since I was a child; as a student at university I was the only one wearing yellow trousers. When I started creating new words like LYMS and blyse I also became fascinated by the letter “y”. This all came together when, working on my exhibition when in 2013, a problem appeared: how could I prevent people walking into the projector, positioned as it was, in the middle of the gallery? The solution: to order hundreds of yellow 20cm “y”’s and spread them out across the floor around the projector as a protective barrier. It worked very well.
Since then, a yellow y appears occasionally in my films, and I always bring one with me in my performances; I also like to wear a yellow costume. In short, the yellow “y” has become something I identify with.
3.
The yellow “y” in Taichung, Taiwan (2015)
At the start of the 21st century my introduction to the program Indesign was a small break-through. The program made it easy for me to create what I called “lettercarpets”: landscapes arranged by letters. In 2007 I had my first solo-exhibition presenting these in Gallery Briskeby in Oslo, Norway. Kenneth Goldsmith was kind enough to publish the catalog on ubu.com.
4.
From the film (and book) when, presented at the Gallery for Norwegian Printmakers, Oslo, 2013
In the 80s, while there were huge economic and cultural changes taking place all over the world, I was busy with my family. Later, when I sent the script for my first book to a larger publishing house, the editor sent me a nice letter, telling me that unfortunately it was “too early” for concrete poetry. This was in 2002. I never contacted others, but self-published the book and arranged an exhibition of large-scale pages in a library in 2003.
The Danish poet Christian Yde Frostholm published my first digital poems, “svevedikt”, on his web afsnitp.dk in 2006.
When I went to E-poetry2007 in Paris, in 2007, it was a shock. It blew my mind to be at a festival with people from all over the world, the focus of whose work matched my own. I wrote an enthusiastic online report for the website helgerykkja.com, rounding off with a plea not to be the only representative from the Nordic countries the next time around. I then immediately started planning my first poetry film.
In my first two films (LYMS and when) I collaborated with two Norwegian composers, Xploding Plastix, who made the music. Their contribution helped taking the project to a new level, a collaboration which was, I believe, part of the reason why the films were accepted as part of the Berlin poetry film festival Zebra, in 2010 and 2012.
5.
The poetry film when (2011), which premiered in ePoetry2011 in Buffalo/New York
The film LONG RONG SONG, which premiered in 2015, was a product of a new collaboration with the Russian composer and musician Taras Mashtalir. Together we use the name: OTTARAS. The text was taken from my book of constructed words, AUDITION FOR PHENOMENA WITHOUT A NAME (2004). Our first performance in Bergen was a great experience, and a big motivation to keep going. So far, we’ve made six films and performed in several countries. Our films are made in three versions: one for screening, one for a collaborative performance, and one for my solo performance.
6.
The poetry film LONG RONG SONG (2015), which was screened at the Electronic Literature Organisation Festival in Bergen in 2015
In 2006 I published a concrete poetry concept book called telefonkatalogdiktet (the phonebookpoem in English). An antiquated reference, it refers to the catalogue published yearly by state-owned phone companies, with entries on all the people in an area (all who wanted to be in the book that is, but almost everyone did), their phone numbers and addresses. The book was distributed to everyone for free. In 2003, I read the Oslo phonebook, picking out surnames I thought poetic, many of them connected to the Norwegian landscape. I arranged them after the number of letters and syllables, creating shapes out of more than a thousand names. This was the basis for four films, in which the visual effects were made by the Russian artists Alexander Vojjov and Yan Kalnberzin, also in collaboration with Taras.
Traveling several countries reading Norwegian family names has been interesting, and very funny. The reception has been great, whether in Romania, Canada or other countries. My greatest experience was in the Videodrome in St. Petersburg in 2018. With six projectors covering the walls in 360° and many young people sitting on the floor in the middle of the large room, it was an amazing experience.
7.
Science fest in the videodrome, St. Petersburg (2018)
One of the best experiences I’ve had as a poet was being invited to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taiwan. During my stay on the island I was asked to give a lecture to “the friends of the museum”, which, amazingly, turned out to be almost two hundred very interested people. During the Q&A that followed I was generously encouraged to also create visual poetry in Mandarin. Five years later, at a conference in Lancaster in the UK, I met two PhD-students from China who tried to motivate me in the same way.
And so I decided to make peaceful dream, a Chinese version of my first book. I bought a Mandarin dictionary and started studying the old, most basic words – the ones that have one sign only – as I wanted to keep the aesthetics from the book with a single word in each corner. I discovered that the ancient, one-sign words matched the original book well. The words in the film are not a translation, but I think the Chinese version gives much of the same feeling as the book.
I shot the footage in Vienna and Norway, and improvised the music on different keyboards. The final film was selected for the fourth collection of the Electronic Literature Organization, which was presented in Como/Italy in summer 2022.
In many of my films I’ve been mixing words from different languages without translation. If the viewer does not understand some words, this is perhaps not a bad thing. After all, reading is only part of understanding.
8.
Trailer for the poetry film peaceful dream (2020), based on the book het still (2003)
My motivation has always been to expand the idea what poetry might be, to mix letters and words in new ways, and develop my own artistic thinking and practice. John Cage once said about his own works: “You don’t have to call it music if the term shocks you”. For my work, I like to substitute “music” with “poetry” in this statement.
From 2007 to 2015 my works were screened in all E-poetry festivals, until Loss P. Glazier’s retirement and the end of the festival series. In parallel with this, the Electronic Literature Organization grew stronger, with many of the same people in the events. After 2015 they’ve had conferences yearly, and I have had the pleasure of participating with screenings and performances.
Except for during the covid years, the visual poetry has taken me to several countries I’d never been, introduced me to a great number of nice people, and opened up many interesting conversations. Among other things, I can thank the E-poetry for having danced tango in Buenos Aires. Most places I’ve unfortunately been the only poet from the Nordic countries.
Even though I’ve felt alone in much of my work, I’ve had important support from people in Norway: the poets Jan Erik Vold and the late Helge Rykkja, people in Samlaget, Audun Lindholm, Helle Kaarem, Dimitri Kayiambakis, Erik Wessel, Hans Kristian Rustad, Patricia Thomaszek, Scott Rettberg, and Birgit Hatlehol. It has also been a great experience to work together with the animators Vibeke Luther O’Rourke, Ina Pillat, and Margarida Paiva.
9.
Conversation with Thomas Zandegiacomo Del Bel at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin (2019)
Photo by Hanne Heen
Working at Halden Bookworks during the Nordic Letterpress Collaboration (2017)
Photo by Johan Solberg
About the artist
Ottar Ormstad (b. 1947 in Oslo, Norway) is an artist and poet based in Oslo, Norway. His work ranges from print-based concrete poetry to animated poetry films, and includes electronic music, graphic visuals, and live video footage. Since his debut collection het still in 2003, he's published a number of poetry books, in Norway and abroad. Ormstad's films have been screened at Zebra Poetry Film Festival, and festivals arranged by Electronic Literature Organization, among others. He's been invited to lecture at University of Lancaster, and Université Paris 8. His work has been displayed at venues such as Oslo Poesifilm Festival and Deichmanske Library in Oslo, and Nordic Poetry Festival in Hamar. Ormstad is one part of the duo OTTARAS, together with Russian composer and musician Taras Mashtalir.
