Kankaanpää, Findland 2007 June 13 - June 19, 2008

WRITING AND DRAWING--PUTTING THEM TOGETHER AGAIN WRITING MUSIC In the late 1800’s Claude Debussy wrote, “The century of aeroplanes has a right to its own music. As there are no precedents I must create anew.” When so many of us labor over learning our 12th century versals and 14th century italic, one could argue that in this “electronic” era we haven’t even begun to explore writing that would meet the musical equivalent expressed in Debussy’s 1800 proclamation. We will try to catch up in this class and will use music and the philosophies of various musicians to do so. We will listen to music and write, draw, and paint music. We will compare renaissance classical music and renaissance writing and contrast them with modern classical music and its implications for the development of modern writing. With the musical elements, pace, force, and flow, as our guides we will invent modern expressive letterforms. The program will also explore issues surrounding verbal/visual legibility. LEARNING CALLIGRAPHY: A MODERN APPROACH The teaching of calligraphy in modern times has evolved around the idea that we learn from a model alphabet. In the UK this has been Edward Johnston's foundational hand while in the US, Italic alphabets have served as models. The thrust of this teaching has been "typographic." We present the alphabet as a family and teach single specific forms for each letter that are then repeated in the act of writing a text. In this class students will explore an alternative way of thinking about and learning calligraphy. Rather than writing, we will look at calligraphy as drawing. Variation in form and the development of visual relationships and rhythms will be given emphasis. We will still learn from historic models. Two Roman cursive alphabets from the 5th century will be the foundation for the study. We will look at the alphabets, not to reproduce them as writing, but to get a feel for the idea of calligraphy as drawing. The study will also provide the foundation for the development of two new alphabets; a personal cursive handwriting, and a formal calligraphic hand. Legibility issues as well as other questions that will certainly arise form the study will be topics for discussion. Contact: Veiko Kespersaks veiko.kespersaks@samk.fi