visual poetry

Visual poetry is poetry or art in which the visual arrangement of text, images and symbols is important in conveying the intended effect of the work. Confusingly, it is sometimes referred to as concrete poetry, a term that predates visual poetry. Some traditions of visual poetry were heavily influenced by Fluxus, which is usually described as being Intermedia. Intermedia work tends to blur the distinctions between different media, and visual poetry blurs the distinction between art and text. Another description of visual poetry would be multimodal visual communication. Whereas concrete poetry is still recognizable as poetry, being composed of purely typographic elements, certain types of visual poetry are much less text-dependent. The majority of visual poems incorporate text, but the text may have primarily a visual function. 'Vispo' is a common abbreviation for visual poetry.