{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O154433"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O154433/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O154433","accessionNumber":"CIRC.127-1970","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"untitled","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Dom Sylvester Houedard was a Benedictine monk and eminent theologian, but also a pioneer, in Britain, of concrete poetry, a poetic form in which the arrangement of words and letters in a pattern on the page relates to the meaning or emotional impact of the poem. Using concrete poetry as a kind of springboard Houedard developed a way of making more purely abstract or pictorial images with the typewriter keys. He wrote that \"During 1945 I realised the typewriter's control of verticals and horizontals, balancing its mechanism for release from its own imposed grid, (and) offered possibilities that suggested (I was in India at the time) the grading of Islamic calligraphy from cursive (naskhi) writing through cufic to the abstract formal arabesque, that 'wise modulation between being and not being'”. \r\n\r\nKonrad Bayer was an important writer who belonged to the radical and experimental 'Vienna Group' (1954-1960) of writers. He died by suicide in 1964.\r\n\r\nThis is one of a number of so called typestracts by Houedard in the museum’s collection. Some contain a legible arrangement of words, others are abstract, often resembling the drawings of the Russian Constructivists.","physicalDescription":"Image made up from the keys '|' or '-'. Composed of a square area of vertical short red lines, with four smaller squares, all more or less same size, set irregularly in each quarter: upper left and right and lower left and right, each of a variable degree of intensity of typed keys. Superimposed over these the outline of a fifth square, slightly larger than the other four, also drawn with the same key. On paper pasted to card which has a pattern of narrowly spaced horizontal lines which appear to be made from residual glue.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Houedard, Dom Sylvester","id":"A15939"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"typewriter","id":"x42875"},{"text":"ink","id":"x39739"}],"techniques":[{"text":"typescript","id":"x33813"},{"text":"typewriter","id":"AAT233655"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Typescript in red and black on paper","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Typography","id":"THES260188"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"MP","shelf":"311","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1964","earliest":"1964-01-01","latest":"1964-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"21.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"card","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"20.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"card","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"dsh 091164","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"the artist's initials and date of work in black typescript, vertically, down top left side."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"By Dom Sylvester Houédard: typestract, untitled, 1964","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1970"},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Dom Sylvester Houédard : Visual Poetries</i>, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971","id":"AUTH354625"},"details":"8","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"concrete poetry","id":"AAT55932"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.127-1970"],"accessionNumberNum":"127","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1970,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-03","recordCreationDate":"2008-05-09","availableToBook":false}}