Fotograf Magazine

In 1928, Karel Teige published his Second Manifesto of Poetism. In it, he wrote: Poetism proposes a new poetry, which strives to set its cosmos into verse through all the media that modern-day science and industry offer, and which strives to ravish the whole universe of the human soul by moving all of man’s senses. (…) We are on a quest for a poetry that speaks to all of the human senses, saturating the viewer’s sensibility, captivating and brightening his soul. We wish to found this poetry on a sensory, physiological alphabet, upon the infinitesimal stirrings of the senses and the nerves, these “strings of the soul”.[ref]Karel Teige, “Poesie pro pět smyslů, čili druhý manifest poetismu / Poetry for the Five Senses, or, the Second Manifesto of Poetism”, (1928), in: idem, Svět, který se směje, Praha 1928, p. 219.[/ref] But where does one look for this sensory, or physiological alphabet, which would make it possible to invent a poetry for all human senses? There is in fact an easy answer to that question.