Abstract Automatic Autobiographical Asemic Argot
A limited edition chapbook of asemic writing, published by Stone Corpse Press.
https://stonecorpse.com/sj-fowler/
20 new asemic poems, with an introductory essay.
Stone Corpse Press. Rock Island, Illnois, edited by Daniel J Flosi.
“These poems emerge from a time of both teaching and learning asemic writing.
Since the publication of Selected Scribbling and Scrawling, my selected asemic poems (Zimzalla 2021) and my online lecture on asemic writing for the Arnolfini Gallery, I have often been invited to teach asemic writing, and in so doing, have worked with some remarkable practitioners in the field.
I have had the chance to therefore refine how I teach asemic writing, in concert with others, and through trial and error, by first stressing the physical, neurobiological, therapeutic, cathartic elements of handwriting in a digital age. Then discussing the miraculous singularity of our handwriting, and the necessity of doodling for prefrontal cortex relaxation, as well the efficaciousness of writing for CBT and other practical therapies.
Then I tend discuss the historical precedent of humans making marks and the history of writing, as a physical act, as an urge, as something we taken for granted, often, just how fundamental it is to our species. I emphasise how much of this is not just creating semantic meaning, but making the marks of that meaning with our hands, with tools and materials, and the physical process that which has, recently, so often been robbed from us. From cave paintings to religious writings, from calligraphy to reading nature as a language, my examples are ambitious. I then end by talking about the modern history of asemic writing, every tradition it entails from Abstract Expressionism to the COBRA group.
This all done, I spend hours having the participants try various asemic techniques. The first part of this practice is giving multiple exercises based on physical prompts. Write as small as you can, as big, with your weaker hand, while not looking at the page, while standing, lying down, upside down, with your mouth, foot, while someone else is holding the pen or pencil etc… This tends to inculcate a sense of playfulness and enjoyment for me and the group.
And because someone leading should be doing what they are sharing, these poems exist, made in cities across Europe, in various schools and universities. They are thus somewhat collaborative and quite deliberately lo-fi, made of pens to hand, on paper I’ve salvaged or grabbed running out of the door. Made without recourse to trying to be impressive, or aesthetically grand. They are made of a sense of solidarity with those new to the asemic process, smashed out and rough.
Special thanks go to the students of Kingston University’s creative writing program in 2024 and 2025, who spent many hours listening to Henry Flynt’s Purified by Fire, against their will, while being asked to asemic write. Thanks too to peers in asemia who have inspired my practise and depth of research during specific time these poems were made - Vilde Bjerke Torset, Bård Torgersen, Stefan Ellmer, Aryan Kaganof, Dathini Mzayiya. Thanks to Daniel J Flosi for his enthusiasm in putting out this work. And gratitude to Serendip Studios, whose generous support has allowed me to continue with my work and research into asemic writing through the Poem Brut project.