My paper discussing my and Chou, Cheng-Yu's performance piece, 'Collaborative Calligraphy' (2016), has been published in Liminalities: Journal of Performance Studies. See: http://liminalities.net/13-2/calligraphy.html Reference is: Buckingham-Hsiao, R. 2017. 'Collaborative Calligraphy: An Asemic Writing Performance' in Liminalities 13 (2)
On the 2nd of May I collaborated with the poet Elaine Hickman-Luter and the dancer Hannah Wildwood on a performance piece entitled “The Seagull’s Dream”. It was performed to an audience of about 50 at the Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton as part of a “Collaborative Theatre Makers” evening. The performance was based on a poem... Continue Reading →
During the course of my research into performance and language I have been investigating the differences and similarities between Eastern and Western conceptions of difference, particularly in its clearest expression - binary opposition (black / white, presence / absence, etc.). In the East binary oppositions are represented most famously in the Tai Chi diagram (Tai... Continue Reading →
I have been concentrating on research recently but still practise calligraphy every night. Below are recent examples of zhuan shu (篆書) and Kai shu (楷書). I have also dabbled in Bangla calligraphy; I was taught by a Bangladeshi student in Wolverhampton. And finally I have created some more asemic collages; similar to previous ones but... Continue Reading →
Current exhibition: Asemic Tech 28 Feb - 14 March 2017 Punt Multimedia, A la Casa del Mig, Carrer Muntadas 1 (Dins el Parc de l'Espanya industrial) 08014 Barcelona, Espania. http://www.puntmultimedia.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7smx_3qfcg La escritura Asemic es muda, abstracta, e ilegible. Asemic significa no tener un contenido semántico específico, o sea que es una escritura sin un... Continue Reading →
On Sat 7th Jan 2017 my wife and I visited the Pen Museum in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. It's a small but fascinating museum containing traditional nib-making machinery, displays of pens, inks, quills, ornate inkwells and ink blotters, early typewriters and braille equipment... and a lot of nibs. The volunteer staff are friendly and full of... Continue Reading →
I have been interested for a while in the interaction of different surfaces with calligraphic writing. In China calligraphy is traditionally found on objects as well as flat paper, so a variety of surface shapes and textures are interacted with; it may, for example, be found on fans, lanterns, ceramics and screens. By contrast Western... Continue Reading →
I have created some new "asemic" artworks from fragments of characters produced while shooting a video on binary opposition and calligraphy (see below figs. 1-7). Asemic writing is an "open semantic form" of writing whose words lack referents. Asemic words are “abstract” in that they lack specific symbolic content, syntax or phonetic components. The term... Continue Reading →
Chinese calligraphy is traditionally written with black ink on white paper. Red paper may be used for auspicious posters (red being a lucky colour in China) and red ink is often used by calligraphy teachers to correct students’ work (to distinguish the correction from the error), nevertheless it is true that Chinese calligraphy is almost... Continue Reading →
My essay 'Hybrid Calligraphy' is now available in Letter Arts Review. There were a few editorial changes to the wording (not for the better in my opinion) but my points remained clear and it does look a handsome publication. Buckingham-Hsiao, R. (2016) Hybrid Calligraphy. Letter Arts Review, 30 (3), pp. 48-53 . $14.50 from John Neal Books (ISSN: 0895-7819)
Calligraphy Research 