Spinning Top

by Lavinia Singer, in response to Öyvind Fahsltröm

The actual work is 'Spinning Top'. It's accompanied by a poem generated by 'Spinning Top', also called 'Spinning Top', as an example of how it works. Shared below is an encrypted version of the poem, where the wheel has been shifted seven places along [+7]; the phonetic sounding of the poem; and, lastly, the poem in written English.

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I was inspired by several elements and ideas from Fahlström's oeuvre, rather than one work in particular. But, if I need to choose just one piece, then we might choose The Monopoly Games (1970–71). 

'Spinning Top' responds to Fahlström's invention of 'game paintings'; his insight that games require only one thing: rules; and the importance of interaction/public participation in his works. It incorporates his notion of variability, where elements can be arranged in different configurations. And it builds on his interest in technology and 'the new media'.

I also wish to offer 'Spinning Top' as an interpretation of 'invisible poetry'. Fahlström uses the phrase 'The Invisible Painting' as the title of a prose text in 1960, describing “a painting that exists for the experience, the content, that it can convey. Become invisible painting. [. . .] For me, it is largely a question of making the painting take hold as a never completely graspable, definable, but riveting vehicle of content.” (link)

My work in response emerges from the realm of cryptography – 'hidden writing' – taking the shape of a cipher wheel, hinting at infinite possibilities, but also a child's spinning top – another kind of interactive game. Instead of the letters of the alphabet, it expresses the 44 phonemes of the English language, represented using IPA symbols (International Phonetic Alphabet). This allows for the building of a poem in any language. The poem is invisible in the sense that it is yet to be generated and, when it is eventually generated by an audience member, it would be rendered in sound. It is also inspired by how we as children first learn to speak and read. I used felt tip, in homage to Fahlström's first significant work, Opera (1952–3) (link).

Sources

https://www.fahlstrom.com/
https://www.dyslexia-reading-well.com/44-phonemes-in-english.html
https://tophonetics.com/
https://ipa-reader.com/

About the writer

Lavinia Singer is the author of the pamphlet Ornaments: A Handbook (If a Leaf Falls/Glyph Press, 2020) and co-editor of Try To Be Better (Prototype, 2019), a creative-critical engagement with the work of W. S. Graham. Her first poetry collection, Artifice, was published by Prototype in 2023. 

More on Öyvind Fahlström:

www.fahlstrom.com