| Okay! Everyone, flip open your notes and review the artists that we were talking about before class ended last week. |
| We started our introduction into the Dada movement; |
| can anyone tell me where it started? |
| Yes, Jimmy? |
| Sweden? |
| No, but I see you're on the right track. |
| Switzerland, actually, in 1916. |
| The artists of Zurich, Switzerland decided they didn't really like the traditional point of view at the time, |
| on reason, beauty, and the western standard of progress. |
| It was the 18th century, with the First World War in high gear. |
| A lot of artists saw the chaos around them, the random nonsensical violence and decisions that were being made. |
| Towns being bombed, wiped off the map, |
| people suddenly being thrown from their homes as the enemy soldiers marched through them - |
| it was a time of uncertainty in many people's lives, with the normal safety and security they used to have crumbling around them. |
| So the artists of Zurich decided that, if that's the way the world was, |
| then their art should reflect that. |
| They believed people should approach their art with a mindset of completely rejecting the normal idea of what art was meant to be. |
| Balance, proportion, beauty... |
| anything you thought as indicators of "great art" should be thrown to the wind. |
| So, to a Dadaist, classical artwork encompassed thinking that was stale. |
| For example, the sculpture we examined at the end of class last week. |
| You couldn't exactly call it beautiful, right? |
| A stool with a bike on top, |
| it rather defeats the purpose of both objects, don't you think? |
| Chaotic, purposeless, a bit ugly; that's the point, |
| and it has Dada written all over it. |
| Randomness was another idea that the Dada style embraced. |
| Life was random, they said, so why shouldn't art be random as well? |
| Logic, order, they wanted nothing of it. |
| Check out this slide. |
| See how it looks essentially like a bunch of colored squares of construction paper thrown at a canvas? |
| Yeah, that's exactly what happened. |
| No pre-planned composition, no forethought to where they wanted the eye to be drawn to, or... |
| what empty space would occur. |
| Just take a bunch of squares, lay down some glue, and throw it. |
| That element of random chance was essential to keep in mind, |
| as the World War and the devastation around them was what really drove this entire movement. |
| A bomb could strike, a fire could start, |
| and you could lose everything at any moment. |
| Everything in the world was up to chance. |
| Also, the way Dadaists presented their art was an extension of the art style. |
| Now, what I meant by this is that while normal artwork is presented in museums, or displayed on the street, |
| Dada work was shown in a more diverse and unconventional fashion. |
| They turned out more like plays or performances. |
| Shows, perhaps, would be a good name. |
| The first shows started in a place called the Cabaret Voltaire, |
| a performance area whose selling point was the rejection of classical art from a western viewpoint. |
| It had no operas or plays. It just mixed everything like without a purpose. |
| To give an example, |
| it throwed in an instrumental performance right behind a display of paintings, |
| which was set up after the viewers had watched a man in a robot costume |
| flailing about for a few minutes. |
| The Cabaret Voltaire's performances also had something that was relatively unheard of at the time: |
| Audience participation. |
| Think about a play you've seen, or an instrumental performance. |
| Likely, all of the action was self-contained, |
| happening only on the stage and involving only the people within the story. |
| It's like a little world that you can view, with a story that builds and completes itself. |
| The Cabaret Voltaire, on the other hand, thrived with audience participation. |
| Audience members were practically invited onstage, to dance with the others, or... |
| to touch the artwork, singing or dancing to the music. |
| The Dadaists practically eliminated the barrier between the audience and the performers. |
| So! Each night would have a new feel to it, |
| a new audience and a new set of performances. |
| With all the interaction and jumping back and forth between 'viewer' and 'performer', |
| things got a bit chaotic. |
| Poetry, paintings, dance, and music all happening across the same stage, |
| occasionally at the same time. |
| The Dadaists tried to make their art reflect that chaotic view of reality. |
| It didn't make sense, there was no order to it, |
| but wasn't that the point? |