Zen & The Art of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

Eryk Salvaggio.

Written in 2000, as a High School Student, for Vuk Cosic’s “Contemporary ASCII” Website

ASCII art is an excellent modern representation of the Zen Aesthetic which has been predominant in Japanese culture for centuries. ASCII, short for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is the basis of internet communication. 128 characters make up the standard,Ý universal code for the transmission of data over the internet. The creation of this protocol has led to the invention of "ASCII art." ASCII Art is defined as any kind of artwork made using the standard ASCII character set.

To understand the relationship between Zen and ASCII, we first must explain the process of ASCII art as a craft. Traditionally, ASCII art was created with the limitations of characters and grid size. ASCII art, which is transferred over the Internet, uses the standard characters from 32 to 128. These characters are universal on the majority of keyboards and systems; consisting of the alphabet in capitals and lowercase; various punctuation, and numerical values. Prior to 32, systems have inconsistencies which can alter the appearance of the character. It also has traditionally utilized a grid shape of 72 characters across, which is the standard resolution for appropriate display on most email programs. Images are displayed using the arrangement of ASCII characters to emote shapes. The grids can be filled with something as simple as the standard X, to create extremely stark black and white contrasts, or using any number of these characters to create an adequate representation of a form. Color tables can be referenced which compare contrast to its appropriate character. For example, a light spot can be left blank or marked by a "." while a darker area can be described using "%" or "X". The Zen aesthetic in art has also used the idea of grids, and evocation rather than definition. "Essence without Form," also known as "mu" or "Satori," literally translated, "nothing" or empty space, is a predominant visual and philosophical ethic in Zen. This has lead to the practice of defining negative space in an artwork and the lines as a means of shaping that space, in the manner of our own physical penetration of the universe.

The works of Gibon Senai, 1750-1837, such as "Frog and Snail," use lines to describe the form of these figures which are highly symbolic in Japanese Philosophy. It is also includes calligraphy within an image to define its visual aesthetic and to further its meaning. Gyokuen Bompos "Orchids" hanging scroll is another such representative. Unlike the Chinese tradition popular in his time, "Orchids" did not use lines to define a rigid space. Instead, it molded the negative space in an effort to infuse it with the idea of "Satori," to infuse the negative with meaning. The most interesting literal comparison, however, is that of Ito Jakuchu, 1716-1806, and his six fold screen series "Phoenix and White Elephant." The six fold screen was literally created as a grid of 310 vertical and 140 horizontal lines, totaling around 43,000 squares of 1.2 centimeters. Each square was then individually marked not as pure color but as a color, with another, smaller area inside painted a shade lighter. The result was, from a distance, the image of an elephant or a phoenix, but almost incomprehensible upon close examination. This is virtually the entire process of ASCII art, several hundreds of years before its time. Contrast "Phoenix and White Elephant" with a 1975 ASCII image of the Mona Lisa; described in a startlingly similar fashion:

"The painting was divided into 100,000 brightness- measured spots by H. Philip Peterson of Control Data Corp.; then each dot was make into a square of over printed letters on the printing device. The program allowed 100 levels of grey." ["Computer Lib / Dream Machines," Ted Nelson ]

The essence of Zen and ASCII becomes clearer still with the analysis of Japanese Calligraphy and its ideological roots. Masu-shikishi Calligraphy, the first purely Japanese style, was developed by the feminine transcription style used in the adaptation of Chinese to fit Japanese speech. The characters were used as ornament, as well as to parlay meaning. The use of shades- darker brush strokes, for example- were widely encouraged as a method to add to meaning. In many cases, such as Kiyohara No Fukayabus 37 line poem which broke sentences halfway through to establish the pattern of a rising sun, poetry sacrificed its oral value in order to be more visually pleasing on paper. Patterns and rhythms of writing were also a major part of the art of Kanji, literally, "The Art Of Letters." Kanji regularly employed the use of the artists stamp- a rubber stamp used to sign paintings or scrolls- and was the first movement to encourage the creation of patterns with these stamps. Similarly, ASCII, also an art of letters, is based on the repetition of characters. Calligraphy has developed into what is in the modern day called Sho, calligraphy which defines rhythmic use of letters. Kaneko Otei, an advisor to the Nitten Calligraphy Exhibition, speaks about this calligraphy with vivid overtones of the ideas of Mu and Satori:

"In Calligraphy, colours may be painted in and a ruler used to make corrections...in Sho...in this sense, it is like a ballet movement...Sho is an art that incorporates time and space with something left over afterwards." ["Sho- Japanese Calligraphy", pp.116]

It is interesting to note the similarity between Oteis concept concerning the creation of space within meaning, with Slovenian ASCII artist Vuk Cosics belief that;

"For all my life I have been attracted to unorthodox creation and usage of writing. Every attempt to explore the space beyond text in lines, or between two pages in the same leaf, or between the letter and the paper that holds it was much more meaningful then the most skill fully described night dress in a french nineteenth century novel, or than an existential crisis in the soul of a more recent literary hero." ["3D ASCII, An Autobiography", unpublished]

The Zen connection lies again in the idea of Satori. Zen is a practice which holds deep value in the negative space and paradigm shift, and it is essentially this shift that causes us to see ASCII as not the arrangement of the characters themselves, but of the empty space which each character permits to penetrate it. ASCII is essentially the molding of this empty space to evoke, though never clearly describe, an image, and this evocation is at the heart of Oriental Spirituality. Certainly, ASCII art is not a form of calligraphy, as the characters do not in and of themselves have any particular value, whereas the historical roots of Japanese characters are in "Shokeimoji," the early imitative drawings found in early Japanese life. Koneko Otei elaborates, though, to show that the American alphabet- (The basis of ASCII) has just as valid a potential:

"Oriental characters, of course, can stand independently as they have a meaning. The alphabet...expresses only sounds. The alphabet could be used to show the beauty of the line and incorporate rhythms...Even the "I" or the "a" of the alphabet may express and capture on paper a feeling of infinity." ["Sho- Japanese Calligraphy", pp.118]

The intuitive, rather than the concrete, is not only the foundation of Japanese Philosophy but of numerous other cultural practices. When Otei declares the capacity of the line to express infinity, it is based on the idea of the penetration of physical forms into emptiness. The Zen aesthetic holds dear to itself the idea of ego elimination, or rather, that the ego expand to see its interconnectedness with all other forms of life. This idea of interconnectedness is crucial, and in the presentation of ASCII art- which is, as a medium, a strong metaphor for the collective of numerous values depicting a new image- it is particularly relevant. Aesthetically, the ASCII art image is strung together as loosely as atoms, and the negative space represents satori, or emptiness. The negative space is the evocation of interconnectedness, and each symbol constructs our physical form occurring among mu. But even the separate form itself into a representation of connectivity, as we see it from a distance it appears as though these physical marks have created an image. Here we touch profoundly on the ASCII connection to Zen Enlightenment.

"Paintings are sketchy, simple and almost bare. Contrast is emphasized in the black ink on the white background, and the poignant liveliness of objects against the bare vast emptiness of the space behind them." ["Zen For Beginners," pp 98]

In ASCII, the common format is green text on a black background, which allows the strokes of bright pixels to become clearer definitions of an image.

The idea of the world of image is a basic aspect of Zen. The reality of the world of sight is not to be depended on too heavily, as images can lie and the truth can often not be seen. The lack of clear distinction between foreground, character, and image, is representative of the essential idea that we are all an interdependent one. Zen strives for the absolute elimination, or unlearning, of perception-logic to understand the deeper levels of the self. The aim of the meditation exercise is essentially to forget one’s self and meaning as it has been learned.

"The principle of Zen methodology is this- whatever art or knowledge a man gets by external means is not his own, does not intrinsically belong to him... only things evolved from his inner being are his own. This inner being opens up its deep secrets only when he has exhausted everything belonging to his intellect or conscious deliberations." ["Zen and Japanese Culture," pp 221]

When we see the Zen importance of unlearning, we can again begin to see the peculiar spiritual essence of ASCII art, as the elimination of logical values of letters and linguistics are shunned. Words are abandoned as meaningless, and punctuation is used chaotically. Letters stutter across the page in the completely absurd descriptive narrative of an image, rather than the intended use of "Information Interchange." The recycling of the alphabet as a basis of language, towards the creation of what the letters were meant to describe, creates an almost paradox of meaning within the lack of meaning. In other words; the image which renders the alphabet temporarily useless by its superior descriptive power, is based on the relics of words. As a paradigm shift, which Zen finds so important, it is a perfect example of the interplay between the world of sensation and that of description. Only through the breakdown of the written language can we express an image with more clarity, a sort of digital vow of silence, or the Internet speaking in tongues.