Digital Concrete:
tools for making visual poetry
In 1955, the impetus to create a certain kind of visual poetry appeared simultaneously in Switzerland (with Eugen Gomringer) and Brazil (with the Noigandres poets Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos and Décio Pignatari). Joining forces, they adopted the term ‘concrete’ to foreground the ‘building up’ of poetic materials both visually and sonically.
We will look at how concrete poetry was being practiced in Canada in the 60s and 70s, and will then introduce a number of digital tools that allow for unexpected manipulations of text for the creation of digital concrete poems.
synergy sympathy synthesis
Reg Beatty (2019) —from A Riot of Type
Two Manifestos in Concrete Etc
- "The Line as Constellation" —Eugen Gomringer, 1954
- "The Poem as Functional Object" —Eugen Gomringer, circa 1960
- Quote —dsh
Two Anthologies in Concrete Etc
- Concrete Poetry: A World View —Mary Ellen Solt, 1970 (pdf)
- Concrete Poetry: A 21st-century Anthology —Nancy Perloff, 2021 (pdf)
- Concrete, Visual & Sound Poetry —Beat Books catalogue (UK)
Women in Concrete
- "Women in Concrete Poetry" (Monoskop, circa 2018)
- "But is it Concrete?" —article by Lucy Ives, 2021
- "my bodies of bliss": Judith Copithorne's Concrete Poetry in the 1960s and 1970s —article by Eric Schmaltz, 2018 (pdf)
- Another Order: Selected Works of Judith Copithorne —by Eric Schmaltz, 2023
- Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry —review, rob mclennan's blog (2021)
- Dani Spinosa, Typewriters, Desire, Community —Dani Spinosa (2020, with images)
- Dani Spinosa, OO: Typewriter Poems —review, rob mclennan's blog (2020)
- A coversation between Dani Spinosa and derek beaulieu —periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics (2021)
Canada in Concrete
- grOnk magazine —post by Lori Emerson, 2011
- More grOnk magazine —post by Lori Emerson, 2012
- "Canadian Concrete Poetry Collection" prospectus—Granary Books, New York (sold)
- "Concrete Poetry in Canada" —post by derek beaulieu, 2021
- bpNichol Archive
- bpNichol collection donated to TMU Special Collections —August 2025
- Steve McCaffery presents a complete copy of Carnival to TMU Special Collections April 8, 2026 —poster by yours truly
- aka bpNichol —site by Frank Davey and David Rosenberg
- bpNichol: What History Teaches —by Stephen Scobie, 1984 (pdf)
- Borderblur Poetics: Intermedia and Avant-Gardism in Canada, 1963-1988 —Eric Schmaltz, 2023 (open access)
- Surfaces —Eric Schmaltz, 2018
- Review of Eric Schmaltz's Surfaces —rob mclennan's blog (2018)
- F.E.L. Priestly Memorial Lectures 2025-26 —Jordan Abel. "Tomorrow is a Dream: Nisga'a Futurity and Anti-Colonial Poetics" (three videos)
- reading in the margins: Jordan Abel —review on rob mclennan's substack (2024)
Concrete→Visual Poetry
- "FIRST SCREENING: COMPUTER POEMS" —by bpNichol, 1984
- Vispo.com —site run by Jim Andrews
- Sea of Po...a manifesto, a manual and a magazine, 2024-26 (interactive pdf)
- the last VISPO Anthology: visual poetry 1998-2008 —edited by Nico Vassilakis and Crag Hill, 2012 (pdf)
- UbuWeb: Visual Poetry
- Quantum Typography —by Gary Barwin, 2018 (pdf)
- Taper online literary magazine, started 2018 (Nick Montfort)
—hand stamped metal type,
Martin Reis (2025)
Tools for Concrete
Toronto Metropolitan University's Centre for Digital Humanities
rbeatty@torontomu.ca