Dadaism
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It is difficult to define Dada at this point in time. Since its beginning during WWI it has "permeated with the insistence of air" into many areas of the arts. Dada has taken on many forms and has coupled with many other ideas and ideals. Dada is many things at once and exists in many places at once.
Dada is a movement in the arts that began during the onset of WWI. It would seem that the movement originated in neutral Zurich Switzerland at a small social club called the Cabaret Voltaire with a group of artists who came from all sorts of backgrounds. (Multiple background and style {individuality} is a key in dada activity)
The Dadaists had become disgusted with the absurd social climate that saw war as its only solution to its disagreements. It was this absurd attitude that primarily fed the Dadaists' activities. These artists at the Cabaret Voltaire rebelled against it by bringing forth another form of absurdity- absurdity of language [babel?] - into the faces of the active public {bourgeoisie} to try to uproot the social values that were prevalent at the time.
(Although polemics was a big part of Dada- according to Tzara, I do think that the action of creating art was most important to them. The Zurich Dadaists claim that they had no programme in mind.)
Within the Cabaret Voltaire any artist could come to show their work without pretension. (Individual expression within a group is a key in dada activity) Painters had their work on display while poets, singers and musicians performed. Phonetic or Abstract poems that used gibberish in place of words were often heard ("NOISES ARE OFTEN MORE POWERFUL THAN THE HUMAN VOICE"- Hugo Ball) gibberish
The Dadaists began to perform outside of the Cabaret's walls (what made them decide to do this?) by printing false reports in the local papers or by performing on the street. Their actions seemed irrational and made no sense to the public. The public took notice of them for many reasons: 1. They were annoying. 2. Previous art(ish) movements such as the Futurists were well known for purposely causing similar disturbances (for different reasons, but the public didn't know this).
But there were some who's minds were opened by Dada action. If this were not so then Dada would not still exist today. Dada reflects the non-tangible aspects of our environment through a reordering of language (i.e. words, signs, symbols or anything we use to communicate). When we look at a mirror reflection sometimes the object we view seems unfamiliar. When something is unfamiliar, we tend to look at it more carefully and thereafter tend to find new aspects of it we may not have noticed earlier.
{Experiment: Spend some time drawing any object you like. Spend maybe about one half of an hour. Then, especially when you think it looks like you've done a really good job, hold up a mirror to it and stare at its reflection. Compare its reflection to the reflection of the object you drew. What do you think of your drawing now?}
Dada makes things confusing because we tend to be more comfortable with specific meanings and definitions. It reflects meanings of symbols we have defined and have become limited to. This reflection enables us to redefine these symbols.
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