WEBSTRUCTIONISM by ROBERTO LAVIDEZ

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

cry baby cry

by Roberto Lavidez

cry baby, cry

free market

roller coaster ride

goes awry

collapsing deck of credit cards

balancing act bungled by mascots

fannie mae is not funny

freddie mac cannot juggle

clowns hanging by the golden thread

of invisible balloon

acrobats jump without safety net

wizards vanish without trace

crowds scramble for shreds

of carnival tickets

cry baby, cry

free market

roller coaster ride

goes awry

no more special rates,

freebees, gimmicks

gambling goes bust

mug shots of long faces

plastics, backpacks, broken bottles

join the wasted migrant worker

at the amusement park

among pellet ridden pigeons

milk bags filled by

mother’s frustrating toil

labor strike

tempers boil

bargaining table stinks

of soiled pampers

public squares

whining at corporate sharks

barking at ceo jerks

fattened with perks

who coddle bonds

massage swiss

and fondle exotic assets

giving birth to

domestic poverty

cry baby, cry

free market

roller coaster ride

goes awry

financial meltdown

nervous breakdown

neo-liberal fears

great, greater, greatest

depression

the unemployed

couched,

soaked in alcohol

igniting fire

to self immolation

trickle down economy

of toxic imports

and expired goods

what’s left on the table

for the working poor?

a plate of promises

from quack politicos

a bowl of threats

from gang of creditors

and thug collectors

a cup of suffering and petition

from pastor in pimp suit

cry baby, cry

free market

roller coaster ride

goes awry

owner-ship is sinking fast

everyone’s at risk of losing

a car, a house, a spouse

finding fault in breadwinner’s

low wage

defaulting on mortgage

pension sabotaging old age

meanwhile

same horse shit goes

merry-go-round

whitewashing

white collar crimes

blacklisting blacks

scapegoating boat people

racializing asians

profiling muslims, jews

and any group they choose

ghettoizing the wise

marginalizing aboriginals

demonizing those who

are different and nice

silencing those who speak

pepper spraying those who see

truncheoning those who listen

taser gunning those who stand up

arresting those who resist

torturing to pacify

killing to save

the lifestyle of those

who make a killing in

mining, drilling

to excess

extracting riches out of

third world resources

colonialists, imperialists,

hyenas and jackals

in pursuit of g.o.d.

g for gold

o for oil

d for diamond

while the expendable

lying at the bottom

of dante’s excavation

cry out to commandante che

for chevolutionary justice

to the wall! to the wall! to the wall!

cry baby, cry

free market

roller coaster

ride goes awry

global village is under siege

global pillagers

illuminati of conspiracies

make you see

what they want

you to see

nations are halluci-nations

cities are fantasies

states are states of mind

republics are cliques

with identical state of mind

and shared hallucinations

to think otherwise

is heresy to bureaucracies

crazies that rule democracies

are out to rein sovereignties

for a one world state of mind

debraining citizens

governing mentality of every

consuming desire

cry baby, cry

free market

roller coaster ride

goes awry

lords of poverty

gene-ruse with charity

prophets of development

masters of disaster

they send troops

if tsunamis are unavailable

to create havoc

destruction for reconstruction

a carousel of employment,

unemployment, deployment

turning coeds in debt

into patriots risking death

the ministry of peace

holds the key to war

the ministry of love

the secret to hate

orwellian 1984

is here to stay

brother

informing all in uniform

that 2 plus 2 equals

4^th of july

that it is safe

to conform

‘til the comets fall

to not think of any

other thrill

outside the roller coaster ride

to not fear the impending doom

and sit tight for the next boom

everything for profit

for one stop shopping

commodifying identities

wholesaling immigration

retailing citizenship

marketing refugees

to paint a human face

on social irresponsibility

devaluation of human dignity

down spiraling morality

breaking away from disaster

helluva doomed ride

cry baby, cry hunger and deprivation

cry baby, cry discrimination and exploitation

cry baby, cry racism and sexism

cry baby, cry torture and violence

cry baby, cry graft and corruption

cry baby, cry suppression and oppression

cry, cry, cry baby, cry

free market

roller coaster ride

goes awry

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WEBSTRUCTIONISM: Reinventing the World through Creative Language

by Roberto Lavidez

Webstructionism is a name I have given to a theory that explores the use of random words or string of words extracted from various texts and references as construction material for both poetry and art. It is a practice of sequencing words to form new phrases as narrative for painting. It is also a process of extracting and assembling unrelated words and phrases from different sources to create new poetry. What began as a wayward search for an idea for a painting has turned into a method that challenges one’s intellectual approach to words as much as it enhances creative use of language. It has also led to criticizing acquired language after discovering how words can be accumulated and manipulated to effect a thought outside of one’s storage of ideas.

The creative dimension of language use presupposes that man can generate and transform word combinations and grammatical structures that are not commonly articulated in any form of communication. Sentences and phrases that may have no exact parallels in previous English usage can be created and introduced to extrapolate abstract ideas. This rationalist view, in contrast to the empiricist, argues that not all knowledge is derived from and determined by sense experience. It supports the theory of innate ideas whereby some knowledge can result from the inherent structures of the mind. Though external stimulation is necessary to awaken innate capacities, it does not necessarily mean that ideas and concepts result completely from external impressions.

As an artist who is in the habit of not only rendering what is visible in nature, but also capturing what may be deemed unpaintable, I have recognized the viability of the written word as more than a tool for poetry by extending its use as guide material for an experimental pictorial composition. What began as a playful mixing of words from torn pages of an old English dictionary had evolved into a theory encompassing other linguistic theories that bear semblance to Webstructionism. The randomness of stringing words and sequencing of unrelated phrases offer exponential possibilities for creative projects of all media which may provide support to existing theories.

In elucidating the workings of the mind and its capacity to reinvent language, I have embarked on this experimental approach using art and poetry to underscore the creative mental process of forming phrases derived from random extraction of borrowed words. The expression of a thought comes from processing words or phrases that are made available through random selection. I rely on intuition in combining words that normally wouldn’t be selected in expressing a thought in the real sense. Phrases preclude any reference to clichés or predictable word combinations. Though there are instances when memory dictates the stringing of commonly used words to produce a phrase subsequent arrangement almost always lean back to the original intent of surprise of Webstructionism which diverts away from worn out phrases or any reference to immediate reality.

Now, how does this word structure render itself to visual exploration? There is an otherworldly reality inhabiting the canvas space where the arbitrary selections of words provide the framework - syntax as pictorial composition. Symbolic knowledge supersedes the literal in providing the blueprint for the visual imagery. The words that make up the complex phrase is connected by a single drawn line following the sequence of the group of words’ relative use to expressing a thought. The resulting visual abstraction made up of a continuous swirling line connecting words serves as the compositional guide for painting. Enclosed shapes determined by the line weaving through selected words are then painted according to artist’s preference which is directed by intuition and sometimes influenced if not hampered by his predictability of taste and acquired style. Choosing colors to fill in shapes simulate the process of choosing words to make a phrase. Aesthetics that guide the artist’s use of colors however do not necessarily apply the same writer’s approach of mixing words. The sensory appeal of colors influenced by artistic preference and knowledge of the discipline do not strictly correlate to the ordering or sequencing of words in a phrase. Rules are different for each discipline, literary or aesthetic, and compounded by the introduction of Webstructionism, adherence to what has been laid down thus far as rules of the game will eventually yield a more comprehensive scope or objective. Putting yellow next to mauve does not need analyzing as to whether it is representative of nature or an abstract concept as much as combining words ‘grout’ and ‘devout’. Lines and colors do not evoke as much analytical response as words. We can ‘read’ past the random display of colors on a canvas surface, but with words, which is what Webstructionism is driving at, the random selection of words when pasted or written together on the surface compels the literate viewer –reader to translate what may seem outright non-sensical verbiage to something even poetically profound. ‘Grout’ and ‘devout’ may be analyzed as sounding similar but the relevance does not end there. Though they rarely appear together on any text, both words when placed side by side, sans the conjunction, conjures up a meaningful connection or symbiosis. The pious devotee referring to the ‘devout’ requires faith which metaphorically can be associated with the word ‘grout’. Grout ‘fills the space’ which can represent the ‘filling in’ of doubt by the devout or devotee’s faith.

Webstructionist grammar does not reject sense. It does in fact embrace profundity given the right word or in the webstructionist sense ‘the rite’ of words through random selection. It is also, as mentioned, autonomous in the rationalist sense. Syntax is not solely derived experientially. It does not categorically represent sense reality. Sentence construction is rooted in imagination breeding odd selection of words in favor of the commonly used. Since ideas are stimulated by the words made available through random selection the artist is discovering thoughts that may have no parallel in the real sense but which can expand if not add new horizon to the conducive kind of rationality he has been accustomed to.

To illustrate the process of Webstructionism, the line that connects words to form a phrase creates the fluid like image branching into irregular shapes which are then enhanced by color. Words that are not selected are either painted over or left as they are printed on a page. The words taken to form a phrase command the flow of the line according to how each word appears in the sequence. What results as visual abstraction after the line is drawn following the sequence of words is actually a mapping out of the evolution of the phrase. It is similar to connecting dots to form a figure, only the dots are replaced by words and the line that goes through the phrase does not represent any particular figure other than the image it creates out of stringing words.

The first step involves skimming through the dictionary and picking a particular page. Leafing through the pages and stopping at any random page is all instinctive. What follows as the tearing of pages and the haphazard pasting of torn pieces on the canvas surface still requires no mental exertion. The word selection that transpires next, where some are highlighted and others are either left out or erased in the process, is based on the artist’s familiarity or quick recognition of the words. It might take some browsing and discriminate selecting of words but this is as far as the tweaking of the elements go which is not unlike choosing green over purple in coloring a spot. Though there are marginalized words that do not end up in the forming of a phrase the goal is to be able to arrange the retrieved words in the quickest way possible avoiding redundant words that would otherwise spoil the freshness of the selection. The process is similar to picking flowers for an arrangement without giving much thought as to why some are left out and others end up in a vase.

During the sequencing of words, worn out phrases are avoided to explore possibilities of creating a syntax out of unique word combinations. It is a conscious negation of conventional usage of the English language, freeing every formation or phrasing of words from the subjugation of official grammar. Despite the wide variety of descriptive words available to depict reality, common language is forged in its method of representation. The very limitation of vocabulary available to webstruction on the other hand, propels the imagination to forge a reality embedded in the new phrase.

In Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, he rejected the assumption that the meaning of the word is the thing it stands for. Wittgenstein argued that meaning is what is given by explanations of meaning, which are rules for the use of words. It is what is understood when one understands what an utterance means based on several criteria of understanding. “Concepts are not correct or incorrect, only more or less useful. Rules for the use of words are not true or false. They are not answerable to reality, nor to antecedently given meanings. Rather they determine the meanings of words, are constitutive of their meanings.”

The intentionality of thought and language of Webstructionism conveys the subjective proposition of a metaphorical world laden with symbols. The object is not perceived or seen in the spatio-temporal world but is imagined from the relations of words. The personal imaging of thought formed by the play of words is manifested through the content of what is written. Though the puzzle of retrieving usable words to create a thought shares a similar thread of arbitrary use of language to represent external reality, Webstructionist thought gravitates towards the unknown like stumbling upon an intriguing object or mysterious code that needs to be examined or deciphered to reveal its meaning. The meaning is in the process of construction and deconstruction of imaginings. It does not pretentiously encapsulate the essence of a higher reality but can open up to alternative realities. The final end has neither finality nor ending. It can only retrace the arbitrary formation of words. Looking at the amorphous image created by the line tracing all the words that make up the phrase reveals the choices made by the artist and the blueprint of how messaging was processed. The inductive deductive roundabout exegesis behind the pictorial and verse compositions is the operative principle of Webstructionist thought and language. It is picture-making which generates potential variants of invented realities.

Roberto Lavidez

Ontario Canada

WEBSTRUCTIONISM by ROBERTO LAVIDEZ

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

cry baby cry

by Roberto Lavidez

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

cry baby cry

by Roberto Lavidez

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