Jacke wie Hose?

Abstract

In his essay Andreas Hapkemeyer starts out from a definition of what the historical Concrete Poetry of the 50ies intended to be, underscoring the substantial difference with more traditional conceptions of poetry. Eugen Gomringer’s vision of the new poem as an object of use and it’s conceptual affinity with design is introduced. After a brief glance at Concrete Poetry’s repercussions on contemporary art (e.g. in the work of artists like Hamish Fulton or Christopher Wool) the work of the Austrian Heinz Gappmayr (*1927) is taken as an example of radical Concrete Poetry and used for a confrontation with different examples from the field of contemporary fashion and communication design. Parallel analysis are made from single design pieces and concrete poems which seem to have followed similar formal strategies. T-shirts bearing a brand name like Puma, Nike or Armani are compared to Gappmayr’s one word texts. While the poet’s single texts are part of a sophisticated poetical system and can only be understood adequately in this context, brand names transport all the non verbal connotations every single brand is made of. It is evident that the years after the ₫linguistic turn‹ use of language as visual element has become very common in contemporary fashion and communication design. Fashion and communication design look very closely at what the concrete poets did with language, but what design uses at the end is merely the form, while in poetry and art form is directly related to substance.