{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O166076"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O166076/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O166076","accessionNumber":"CIRC.129-1970","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"untitled","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Dom Sylvester Houédard 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 Houédard 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\nThis is one of a number of so called typestracts by Houédard in the museum’s collection. Some contain a legible arrangement of words, others are abstract, often resembling the drawings of the Russian Constructivists.\r\n\r\nA note on the mount suggests that this image was made for the flautist Coiti.","physicalDescription":"Image made up of black type. The outline of a double cube shape - one cube above the other. In the upper cube is a pattern of '+' keys making tumbling serpentine lines , with a circle below them. At the bottom left of the lower cube is typed 'section thru',  'phone me' and 'store unit' .","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Houédard, 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 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":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1967","earliest":"1967-01-01","latest":"1967-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"33","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"20.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"section thru/ phone me/ store unit/ dsh 010467","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"lettered as part of the image;  signed and dated within the image, at bottom right.\r\n\r\nThe mount has been inscribed in pencil: rep[produced] in TLS see Lisson [Gallery] for date. Top copy purch{ased] [by] Patrick Procktor."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"By Dom Sylvester Houédard: typestract, untitled, 1967","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":"16","free":""}],"production":"Attribution note: This image is a carbon of a top copy - see note under Marks and Subjects.\r\n\r\nAll Houédard's typewriter 'drawings' from 1950-1970 were made using an Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"poetry, concrete","id":"AAT55932"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.129-1970"],"accessionNumberNum":"129","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1970,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-03","recordCreationDate":"2008-08-15","availableToBook":false}}