Reading is slow, and writing is slower. Words are old-fashioned. Why not consider the communication of the future? In 1837, Sir Isaac Pitman began a sixty-year obsession with producing a system of Shorthand that accurately and swiftly captures voice as evidence of the mind’s movements. In the 1950s, John Malone developed Unifon, a forty-character phonetic alphabet intended for international communication by the airline industry. Both projects reached for artful utility, and both have largely been forgotten. In Rhapsodomancy, kevin mcpherson eckhoff remembers them. Exploring these two phonic alphabets as image, these poems playfully interrogate the relationship between voice and visual poetry. Can pictures represent voice? Can unutterable writing express thought? Rhapsodomancy offers an imaginative response to such questions via empty suits reciting onomatopoeia, letters defying the laws of reality, and drawings divining the future.
Author
look at all these keyboards! most people only see one keyboard at a time, but children often simultaneously perceive many, which is exactly one 'm' more than 'any'. placing a 'why' at the end of 'man' is another way to get many. and how! questions are usually more interesting than answers anyway? other possible uses of a keyboard: sushi platter, percussion instrument, doormat, bookshelf, face washcloth, wagon (add 5 wheels), coffee filter—a measure of infinitude. one might think that at least part of a keyboard would make an effective lock unlocker, but one would be wrang. 'getting keyedboard' happens when someone (a foe or stranger) runs a keyboard across the paint-skin of someone else's vehicle. And if you're still reading this, you're likely getting keybored. when people get so tired that they start emitting zzzzzz's from their face-sound-speakers while also doing anything, that thing might just turn zzzzzany!
