bryan mulvihill’s “caligraffiti” is a homage to the cut-up and permutation processes passed on by Brion Gysin, who along with William Burroughs, explored these techniques as a method to free the word into an open state of visual association. mulvihill and Gysin shared a long practice of calligraphy from China, Japan and Arabic countries. With Brion’s encouragement, bryan applied permutations to Zen Koan, expressions of enlightened states of mind. Offering an open-ended visual system rather than a specific idea or reference point, the work is intended to inspire the creative participation of the viewer. These calligraffiti work with numerous languages and writing systems, through processes of repetitive patterning to stimulate the visual cortex, while remaining free of specific naming processes. The goals of permutation methods and Zen art are similar: to free the mind of preconceived ideas into a state of open-mind creativity. Calligraffiti may look abstract but are in fact loaded with context.