BLAG 01 - Magazine - Page 44
Interowriting
Adventures in Writing with Alice Mazzilli
riting has long been my favourite
form of expression, and I mean
writing in all its forms. In my own life,
I have written letters in the form of text, letters
on my belongings in the form of words, and
letters on walls as graffiti. However, when I say
that I’m a writer, people often respond with
their narrower conception of writing. “You’re a
calligrapher” (or lettering artist), they say. This
may sound familiar to others that share my
broader understanding of writing.
W
The first forms of writing were pictures that
evolved into pictograms, proto-writing, and full
writing, which includes logographic, syllabic,
consonantal, and alphabetic systems. It seems
to have developed independently across all
the continents from around 4000BC. The
Phoenician letters have been particularly
influential, giving rise to a number of today’s
major writing systems, including the one
you’re reading now. I will explore these, and
other major systems, in future articles.
In this series of articles, I will explore the
meaning of writing and develop my concept of
“interowriting”, where “intero” means whole,
entire, or complete. This approach considers
writing beyond the hand, eye, and brain by
introducing a range of other factors, such as
space, time, and our subjective perception of
our surroundings. Interowriting approaches
writing as a form of art, informed by the wonder
contained within its symbols—many of which
carry 5,000 years of history with them.
Writing Today
I want to close this brief introduction by fastforwarding to the ubiquity of writing within our
lives today. Digital technology has ushered in
the biggest revolution in writing since the invention of the printing press, giving unprecedented
access to the tools and technology required to
write. At its heart is a new language, that of the
machine, with information shared at the speed
of light using just two characters: 0 and 1.
Symbols, Systems, and Symbolism
Writing starts with the use of a set of symbols
which are all part of a system and can represent
sounds or concepts. However, the way these
symbols are produced is also important. This
process involves our hands, mind, and body,
including breath. This is writing as a whole-body
experience, connecting our senses, and—with
rhythm and creativity—giving physical form to
sound waves.
There are also deeper meanings present
within writing. It can represent the human
desire for immortality, such as the ubiquitous
inscription of “I was here”, and is perhaps the
closest we will ever get to time travel. It has
also been used to look forward. Mayan and
Chinese writing systems, for example, have a
tradition of predicting what’s to come through
calendrical systems or belief in oracles.
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For me, this revolution makes writing, and understanding it, assume even greater importance.
We often study letterforms with respect to their
shape and spacing, but this easily ignores their
inner meaning and the history they carry.
I hope you’ll join me in this exploration and
development of my interowriting concept.
I can be contacted via info@alicemazzilli.co.uk.
I’ll leave you for now with a question to ponder:
what came first, reading or writing?
Written by Alice Mazzilli / @alicemazzilli
Right page: summary of the important role
of Phoenician letters in the evolution of
some of today’s major writing systems.
BLAG
