Visual Poetry In The Digital Age
how did a political movement transform into a vessel for trauma dumping?
I have been thinking a lot about Lana Del Rey. Born To Die era. The American Horror Story edits with her lyrics I would reblog on Tumblr. How similar those edits are to the visual poems I liked on Instagram today, 10 years later.
In 2014 I was consuming depressing poetry on We Heart It and Tumblr to soothe my emotional teenage heart. This was of course, the golden age of surface-level, highly triggering, cliche poetry that birthed Milk & Honey. 12 year old Amylou ate it up. And I don’t blame her.
As a mentally ill teenager with no support system or coping methods, Tumblr poetry was highly appealing as a means of soothing my woes. There was something about how 5 words on a page arranged in a particular way felt exactly like the emotion I was experiencing.
Now I know this is because of semiotics, but back then it seemed almost spiritual.
At 22 I continue to consume visual poetry on Instagram but with a much more stable mental space. Accounts such as sweetrelease08 and chicfeast.art are creating imagery with limited text and often seemingly random imagery, yet it communicates a tone so clearly. I absolutely resonate with an image of a pomegranate and can’t explain why it makes so much sense alongside those words, but it does. (You could talk for hours about pomegranate symbolism in relation to femininity but I think that it’s more interesting how the atmosphere feels unanimous between text + image despite the lacking context - does this only work because it’s posted on a digital platform? do we forgive the absurdity for the informal nature of instagram?)
It interests me how visual poetry moved from emerging as a political art form in the 60s, to becoming a vessel for trauma dumping, to a form of abstract self-help. As all forms of media have been digitised and transformed into low value ‘content’, I argue that these new versions of concrete poetry still have value.
So what actually is Visual Poetry?
Visual Poetry (Concrete Poetry) was formed in a post-war brazil and throughout its popularity during the 60s + 70s, many artists used it to communicate political beliefs because of its ability to implicitly form meaning through text as an image itself.
Italian artist Mirella Bentivoglio communicated the need for a dismantling of patriarchal structures through her concrete poem ‘Monumento’ (above). In viewing both the content and negative space as a united image, individual letters and their typefaces become small conversations in themselves. The poem acted as a barrier between the artist and society when communicating what were controversial topics.
Whilst visually this is far from the tumblr poetry of sad quotes, the semiotic communication of designing the placement of text is the same. Concrete Poetry lessened in popularity through the 80s + 90s, but was reborn in the digital age with a new face.
There are a few reasons why I think visual poetry had such a grip on 2012-2016 tumblr.
Primarily, it allowed people to communicate more without explicitly saying anything. Therefore lending itself as a good vessel for deeply emotional people who were ashamed of their feelings. Those who couldn’t particularly write long prose could communicate a sentiment without finding all the words. It opened doors for people who enjoyed poetry but perhaps weren’t as good with words (like myself). Many of the images featured lyrics from artists like The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys, meaning it was another form of finding community within those fanbases.
Beyond the aesthetic enjoyment they provided, many of these visual poems were heavily negative in tone. On the soft grunge side of Tumblr and Instagram, this visual poem format became a template for describing personal mental health issues. Topics of self-harm and eating disorders, personal trauma described in a visual form. Very stereotypical Tumblr looking back at it now. They never left me feeling reassured or inspired, so why were we so obsessed with them?
In my personal case, it was very much part of dealing with my mental health by knowing that other people were dealing with the same things. It gave me a sense of belonging. Although I won’t lie, looking back, consuming so much depressing poetic content definitely made my mental health worse. However, I feel as though this grungey, emotional type of content was so trendy at the time, it was kind of unavoidable.
It was just a part of the cool identity package: that you were mentally ill. So, these visual poems were another way of expressing and oversharing our feelings.
10 years later, I’m interested in how visual poetry continues to exist in the digital age. Of course, our use of social media has grown and changed significantly so it is obvious that visual poetry will have also shifted in tone.
In 2024 it has transformed into the poetry memes found on accounts such as sotce, stargirlmusings, nimity.online, chicfeast.art etc. The image + text combination, with philosophical prose placed seemingly randomly on the page, does the same thing as the visual poems of 2014 tumblr, and the concrete poems of the 70s.
In my opinion, the stark difference between 2014 and 2024, is the tone and message being communicated in the poems. Many of these new poetry meme accounts talk of lighter topics; hope, joy, grounding into yourself and trusting the universe.
I’m sure that many people who run these accounts were probably on tumblr during 2014, and in some ways were influenced by those aesthetic visual poems. Undoubtedly, these images have a more positive tone and whilst still being personal, don’t walk the line of trauma dumping and potentially triggering viewers.
I love whenever these pop up on my Instagram because each image feels like it’s own quiet moment and the words are always small reminders to carry with me the rest of my day. They offer peace between the overstimulation of excessive content consumed day to day online. I think the laid back use of the lowercase sans serif type has a big impact on the overall atmosphere created in these images. It feels similar to the notes app, as if these people were quickly jotting down their thoughts right before posting. It’s personable and informal. A direct conversation between creator and viewer.
Whilst Concrete Poetry was often communicating complex topics, Eugen Gomringer, who helped to found the movement, emphasised a ‘spirit of play’ within the art form. I feel as though this is still found in these visual poems now; a playfulness in the abstract imagery and placement of text that feels simultaneously designed and unintentional. Their value as a piece of art, in my opinion, is the same as the poems lithographed in the 70s. Whilst the medium and reader experience is entirely different, the combination of text + image to form meaning continues to have a deep emotional impact on the viewer.
I’m curious the direction visual poetry will take within mainstream media in the next 10 years. Perhaps, since it is so minimal in style right now, it will return to the over aestheticised imagery of the Tumblr era. Or perhaps visual art on social media will all be AI made, who knows.