OEI #112–113: A Cosmology of Bliss concerns Bliss (aka Blissymbols or Semantography) — an unspoken language made of countless little geometric
symbols, many resembling the things they point to, others remaining more mysterious. Charles K. Bliss (1897–1985) began the project in 1942 while a stateless refugee in the Shanghai International Settlement, and who, after emigrating to the Australian beach town of Coogee, worked on it for the rest of his life. After 30 years of obscurity, the language was picked up as a communication system for nonverbal children in a small hospital school in Canada, with great promise. This, however, led to acrimony between its creator and its first genuine users, who sought to amend it for their needs—an event which Charles likened to ‘a new Babel of symbols’.
A Cosmology of Bliss reconsiders the histories, forms, and dreams of Bliss and its many contributors. It includes a new picaresque biography of Charles, the chemical engineer, wounded refugee, and amateur semanticist; essays that draw out affinities and resistances, such as with the history of 20c Australian poetry and experimental pedagogy; unpublished material from Bliss’s manuscripts and correspondences, including an extensive selection of the barely-published Blissymbols Picture Book—Charles’s final work; and commissions by some thirty artists and poets who put the symbols to new and unruly use. Together they seek to lodge Bliss into the history of Australian visual art and poetry as a remarkable exception. Against received accounts of a failed auxiliary language or an outmoded therapeutic aid, A Cosmology of Bliss is the first study to insist that Bliss is a poetic project. Taken as such, the symbols begin to speak—silently—of a world of lucky faults, chemical grammars, speechless inscriptions, and untenable, incandescent loves.
with Dr. Charles K. Bliss & his devoted coworkers: Javant Biarujia, Claire Bliss, Christopher Brennan, Melinda Bufton, Alexis Carrel, Brendan Casey, Justin Clark, Mitchel Cumming, Gabriel Curtin, Jesse Darling, Douglas Everingham, Michael Farrell, Elisa Gabbert, Samantha Gorman, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Sam de Groot, Gail Hastings, Julian Huxley, Martin Johnston, Alfred Korzybski, Ruark Lewis, Aodhan Madden, Ern Malley, Rowan McNaught, Shirley McNaughton, Tom Melick, Quenton Miller, Robert Milne, Anthony O’Donnell, Ouyang Yu, Victoria Perin, Oscar Perry, π.O., Lisa Radford, Oliver Reiser, Bertrand Russell, Mark von Schlegell, Imogen Stidworthy, Brian Stride, Ella Sutherland, Sam Szoke-Burke, Elisa Taber, Peter Tyndall, Lucy Van, Ania Walwicz, Margaret Woodward, Tim Woodward, Tom Wright, Xu Bing, Jarrod Zlatic, etc.
OEI #112–113: A Cosmology of Bliss
ISSN: 1404-5095
ISBN: 978-91-88829-44-3
320pp
Ed. Rowan McNaught
Innehåll
001 Jon Rhodes,
Charles Bliss’ house, Coogee,
New South Wales (1973)
002 Semantography, 2nd ed. (1965)
003 Semantography, 1st ed. (1949)
004 Preparatory document for Semantography Series No. 1
005 Semantography Series No. 23
(1950)
006–007 Selected symbols from
A Blissymbols Primer, Semantography Series No. 186
(1954/66)
008–009 Semantography, 2nd ed. (1965)
010–011 Table of Contents
012–013 from Semantography Series No. 278, Back to the Tower of Babel, c1966
014 Carte de visite of Bliss, c1900
015–057 Bliss (a picaresque in his own words, for the most part) — Rowan McNaught
058 Illustration from C.K. Bliss’s
1929 patent specification
059 Promotional photos from Film
Australia for Mr Symbol Man (1974)
060–061 Invitation to a screening of
Longing for the South (1937); Vienna Mandolin Orchestra programme (1925)
062 Lecture invitations from Bliss’s time in Shanghai (1940–46)
063–064 from Bliss’s time in Shanghai (1940–46)
065 from the remaining reels of Unfinished Symphony (1938)
066–069 from the early manuscripts for Semantography, c1945
070 Oliver Reiser’s proposal for an
‘ionosphere for semantographic skywriting’, c1950
071 from the early manuscripts for Semantography, c1945
072 Typewriter experimentation from the early manuscripts for Semantography, c1945
073 from Semantography Series No. 3, c1949
074 Circular for the Bliss Brothers’ dry cleaning and nylons shop, c1954
075 Semantography Series No. 6, 1952 (later annotated by C.K. Bliss)
076–077 Bertrand Russell’s 1950 testimonial (Bliss’s negative copy) and his reply
078–079 from Semantography, 2nd ed. (1965)
080–081 “Mr Symbols” — π.O.
082–091 An Introduction
092 Unproduced pamphlet, c1951
093 from the early working
documents for Semantography, c1945
094 from one of the first attempts
at a manuscript for Semantography, c1945
095 C.K. Bliss’s second book, The
Invention and Discovery that will Change our Lives (1970); his third book, The Book to the Film Mr Symbol Man (1974)
096–097 Diagrams from Pantheistic Humanism by Oliver Reiser (1950)
098 C.K. Bliss requests (via registered post) his books back from Albert Einstein
099 Oliver Reiser’s letter chastising Bliss for the Semantography dustjacket (1965)
100 Charles’s 1939 poem An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant
Beloved)
101 Charles’s dedication to Claire on his letterhead design (1950)
102–108 The Wife Claire Bliss — Victoria Perin
109 Photographs of Claire, from People, Sydney, Vol. 3 No. 3 (1952), and the Bliss archives at the NLA
110 from the Bliss home movies (NFSA)
111 Working materials for Charles’s Claire photomontage
112–114 Claire materials from the Bliss archives at the NLA
115–117 Copies of the 1939 poems written to Claire during their wartime separation
118–119 Bounce — Lucy Van
120–125 Are Educators Interested in New Ideas in Education? — Jarrod Zlatic
126 Bliss during one of his visits
to the OCCC, c1972
127–132 When a thought falls… — Gail Hastings
133 Semantography, 2nd ed. (1965)
134–141 Small Confusions — Gabriel Curtin
142–171 Blissymbols Picture Book (excerpts) — Charles K. Bliss
172 Semantography Series No. 362 (1971)
173–175 Poetic Voice — Mitchel Cumming
176 Working material for Semantography Series No. 163, c1956
177 C.K. Bliss’s speculative designs for a Bliss typewriter, c1945
178–179 from the dream of Theodorus in an unknown country; “You can’t describe the tumult...” — Rowan McNaught
180 Semantography, 1st ed (1949)
181–191 Semantography (Blissymbolics) — Rowan McNaught
192–195 An Idea Lands 1947–1947 Bromley–Amlapura–Coogee — Oscar Perry
196 Template for an envelope addressing scheme using Blissymbols (undated)
197–198 Look at a River, Elisa — Elisa Gabbert
199–202 Tim Woodward
203–205 If Music Be the Food of Love — Aodhan Madden, after Henry Purcell
206–209 extract from Euphemisms for the Republic — Ruark Lewis
210–222 The Semantography Series — Rowan McNaught
223 Record of an attempted distribution of the Semantography Series
224 from Prototype (Unscroll Bound) — Quenton Miller et al
225–227 Bird Feed — Lisa Radford
228–231 Imogen Stidworthy
232–251 A Semantographic Australian Anthology — ed. Brendan Casey
252 from The Invention and Discovery that will Change our Lives (1970)
253–255 from Lingua Ignota —Samantha Gorman
256–257 Think Feel — Elisa Taber & Tom Melick, typeset by Robert Milne
258–259 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/someone looks at something… LOGOS/HA HA (detail) — Peter Tyndall
260–261 from Book from the Ground: from point to point — Xu Bing
262–263 Mene Mene — Jesse Darling
264–267 from Semaphore Score (Bliss) — Margaret Woodward
268–271 Bliss grids: the BCF 400 Vocabulary Board (1975) and the Bliss–Everingham Symbol Table (1973)
272–273 from The Invention and Discovery that will Change our Lives (1970)
274–275 Shirley McNaughton and C.K. Bliss, c1972
276 Evidence submitted by Bliss against the BCF/OCCC alleging ‘symbol falsifications’ (1981)
277 c1980 cable to Shirley McNaughton
278 Example of C.K. Bliss’s circulated corrections to OCCC/ BCF printed matter
279 C.K. Bliss’s Book of the Sincere Critiques (c1983)
280–291 Blissymbols for Use: The Canadian Contingent — Rowan McNaught
292 Reports and paraphernalia from the OCCC, BCF, and BCI
293 BCI ‘fundamental rules of Blissymbolics’ (2004)
294–295 Beyond the End of Your Nose, a script by P. Henderson & J. Salverson (1983)
296 from Blissymbols for Use (1980) by Barbara Hehner
297–300 Testimony of Justin Clark (November 1982)
301 Shirley McNaughton, Communication (c2012), stained-glass mosaic
302 Shirley McNaughton’s Blissymbol Alphabet Song (annotated by C.K. Bliss)
303 from Symbol Secrets (1979), storybook by Shirley McNaughton
304 A Beginning Look at Graphics (1989) — Shirley McNaughton
305 Blissymbol Concepts software guide, MECC, c1983
306–307 C.K. Bliss’s proposals for acetate Blissymbol stencils
308 First letter sent to parents regarding the experimental symbol program at the OCCC (October 1971)
309 [Moving through country...] —Sam Szoke-Burke
311–313 Two Handles — Agatha Gothe-Snape
314–315 Relay — Ella Sutherland
316–319 To All Friends of Unforgettable Claire — Charles K. Bliss
320 Colophon