A visual/verbal Book by Thomas Ingmire
San Francisco, 2013
Unique book
16 x 13 inches, 20 pages
Jackson Mac Low, (1922-2004) was an American Poet known particularly for his experimental approaches to poetry, musical compositions, and performance art. Inspired in part by John Cage, Mac Low employed systematic chance operations and other similar non-intentional methods in his work. This book is a visual response to the audio performance work titled Open Secrets, by Jackson Mac Low and Anne Tardos. There are ten selections. Most of the works are multi-track voice compositions, while others are instrumental pieces. Specific words are sometimes discernible, but most of the time the voices are used as instruments of sound.
The pages of this book are visual mark making responses the Open Secrets pieces. The instrumental works are depicted with abstract marks, while the voice compositions have been created with layers of hand written and stencil made words. The book itself is an expression of sound. Some of the pages crackle when the pages are turned, others move in silence.