8/08/2011

1

CACS102CRITICAL FRAMEWORKS IN CREATIVE PRACTICE

Week 4�“The Chameleon of Rapid and Self Interested Change�”

Futurism and DADA

Giacomo Balla Science Against Obscurantism 1920

�“Together we will invent...the imagination without strings.Someday we will achieve a yet more essential art, when we dareto suppress all the first terms of our analogies and render nomore an uninterrupted sequence of second terms. To achieve thiswe must renounce being understood. It is not necessary to beunderstood�”(Marinetti 1972, 89)

?????????????�“Dada is a dog a compass the lining of the stomach neithernew nor a nude Japanese girl a gasometer of jangledfeelings Dada doesn�’t go into for propaganda Dada is aquantity of life in transparent, effortless and gyratorytransformation...DADA is a virgin microbe.�” (Tzara 1992, 43 45)

?????????????

8/08/2011

2

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti(1876 1944)

Rapidly changing upbringing: rich, exploitativeand seeking new adventures

Rapidly changing Italy:rich, exploitative and seeking new adventures

Rapidly changing World:rich, exploitative and seeking new adventures

How can we create rapidly changing art?

�“How could you make [art] that might reflect the immense shiftsin consciousness that this altering technological landscapeimplied?�” (Hughes 1980, 16)

�“The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism�”First Published in La Figaro (Paris),

20 February, 1909.

1. �“We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit ofenergy and fearlessness.�”

3. �“We intend to exalt aggressive action, a feverishinsomnia the racer�’s stride the mortal leap the punch and

Stillness/Action

insomnia, the racer s stride, the mortal leap, the punch andthe slap�”

7. �“Except in struggle, there is no beauty! No work withoutan aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry mustbee conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces�”

9. �“We will glorify war the world�’s onlyhygiene militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture offreedom bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scornfor woman.�” (Marinetti 1972, 41 2)

8/08/2011

3

�“War is beautiful because it initiates thedreamt of metalization of the human body.War is beautiful because it enriches a flowingmeadow with the fiery orchids of machineguns�…War is beautiful because it creates anew architecture, like that of big tanks in

Stillness/Action

new architecture, like that of big tanks ingeometric formation flights, the smokespirals from burning villages�” (Marinetti,quoted in Perloff 1986, 30)

Gino Severini Plastic Synthesis of the Idea of War 1915

8. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!...Whyshould we look back, when what we want is to break down themysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space diedyesterday.

Past/Future

�“History, in our eyes, is fatally a forger, or at least a miserablecollector of stamps, medals, and counterfeit coins�” (Marinetti1972, 67)

�“Italy is still the land of the dead, a vast Pompeii, white withsepulchres�” (Boccioni et al 1910)

�“we mean to free her from the numberless museums that coverher like so many graveyards...Come on! Set fire to the libraryshelves! Turn aside the canals to flood the museums!�…Take upyour pickaxes , your axes and hammers, and wreck, wreck thevenerable cities, pitilessly!�”(Marinetti 1972, 45)

Past/Future

Umberto BoccioniWorkshop at the Porta Romana 1908

�“Italy is being reborn...We must breathe in the tangible miraclesof contemporary life �– the iron network of speedycommunications which envelops the earth, the transatlanticliners, the dreadnoughts, those marvellous flights which furrowour skies, the profound courage of our submarine navigators andthe spasmodic struggle to conquer the unknown. How can weremain insensible to the frenetic life of our great cities�…?�”(Boccioni et al 1910)

8/08/2011

4

6. The poet must spend himself with ardor, splendor, andgenerosity, to swell the fervor of the primordialelements�”(Marinetti 1972, 41)

4. �“we say that the world�’s magnificence has been enrichedby a new beauty; the beauty of speed [We celebrate] the

Animal/Machine

by a new beauty; the beauty of speed. [We celebrate] theracing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, likeserpents of explosive breath�” (Marinetti 1972, 41)

�“the dreamt of metalization of the human body�” (Marinetti,quoted in Perloff 1986, 30)

�“preparing the fusion of man with the machine�” (Marinetti1972, 138)

Giacomo Balla Speedof Motorcycle, 1913

Rapidly Changing Devices

�“we must free ourselves from all the old formulas! We mustdestroy everything within us which is static, dead, everything infact which is passéist!�” (Boccioni et al 1910)

4. A racing car whose hood is adorned with greatpipes, like serpents of explosive breath a roaring carthat seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful thanthe Victory of Samothrace�” (Marinetti 1972, 41)

Futurist Painting: Simulteneity

�“the simultaneous action of absolute and relative movement�…thesynthesis of what one remembers and of what one sees�”(Boccioni etal 1910)

Giacomo Balla Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912

�“with dynamism, then, art climbs to an ideal, superior plane,creating a style and expressing our own age of speed andsimultaneity�” (Boccioni et al 1910

8/08/2011

5

�“Nothing is more beautiful than a greathumming central electric station that holdsth h d li f t i h i

�“Every pine wood madly in love with themoon has a futurist road that crosses fromend to end�”(Marinetti 1972, 67)

Futurist Poetry: �“Words in Freedom�”

Gino Severini Visual Synthesis of the Idea ofWar 1914

the hydraulic pressure of a mountain chainand the electric power of a vast horizon,synthesized in marble distribution bristlingwith dials, keyboards, and shiningcommutators. These panels are our onlymodels for writing poetry�”(Marinetti 1972,98)

�“[we must] destroy syntax and scatter�’ d j h

�“Conventional layout is �“contrary to theflux and reflux, the leaps and bursts ofstyle�”(Marinetti, quoted in Perloff 1986,175)

Futurist Poetry: �“Words in Freedom�”

�‘Self Illustrations�’

F U M A R E

TypefaceBOLD italic

one�’s nouns at random, just as they areborn [in our experience]�”(Marinetti 1972,84)

Musical Symbols

�“ma si viale�”(Marinetti 1972,102)

Mathematical Notation�“Horizon =...5 fragments of hills + 30 columns of smoke+ 32 flames�” (Marinetti 1972, 102)

Futurist Theatre: �“Automated Performance�”

dehumanize voice

Umberto Boccioni ,Unique Form ofContinuity in Space 1913

Marinetti, �“Dance Of The Machine Gun�”(Marinetti 1972, 137)

dehumanize face

dehumanize mind

8/08/2011

6

From Electrical War (A Futurist Vision Hypothesis)

Oh! How I envy the men who will be born into the next centuryon my beautiful peninsula when it is wholly vivified, shaken, andbridled by the new electric forces�…Can you see them rioting in the blue, those convulsive nodes ofthundering serpents? They strangle the numberless chimneypots that the worker cities flourish; they shatter the seaports�’open jaws; they cuff the white mountain peaks and sweep cleanthe bile coloured sea, the howling sea, that falls back and risesmadly to lay waste the maritime cities. Twenty electricexplosions in the air, now a measureless glass chamberpneumatically emptied, have echoed the brave torments of tworival peoples with the fullness and splendour of their frightfulinterplanetary electric volleys)

FUTURISM = FASCISM

DADA

Tristan Tzara Dada 4 5(Bulletin Dada) Cover 1919

DADA Futurism: Anti Nationalism

�“We have no intention of standing up for anynation.�” (Huelsenbeck 2005, 475)

�“there are some people �…who even think thath f b i i i i

Richard HuelsenbeckGermany Must Perish! c.1920

other forms: business, marriages, visits, wars,various conferences, limited companies,politics, accidents, dance halls, economiccrises, fits of hysterics, are variations of dada.Not being an imperialist I don�’t share theiropinion�” (Tzara 1992, 34)

8/08/2011

7

�“The Dadaists...took over Brutism ...[but] basicallythey desired the opposite: calming of the soul, anendless lullaby, art, abstract art�” (Huelsenbeck 2005,463)

DADA Futurism: Anti War

Raoul HousemannDADA 3 (Cover)1920

DADA Futurism: Anti Hyperbole

Colonial SyllogismNo one can escape fateNo one can escape DADA

Only DADA can make you escape fate.=============================

Tristan Tzara Dada 2 (Cover) 1917

You owe me 943 francs 50No more drunkards!No more aeroplanes!No more vigour!No more urinary passages!No more enigmas! (Tzara 1992, 51)

Tristan Tzara

Have a good look at me!I�’m an idiot, I�’m apractical joker, I�’m ahoaxer.Have a good look at me!I�’ l f hI�’m ugly, my face has noexpression, I�’m small.I�’m like the rest of you! 1

1. I wanted to give myself a bit of

publicity.

(Tzara 1992, 23)

8/08/2011

8

Hans Arp:Painter and Sculptor

Hugo Ball:Poet and Producer

Hans Richter:

Max Ernst & Hans Arp Switzerland,Birth Place of Dada(Physiomythological Flood Picture),1920

Hans Richter:Painter and Filmmaker

Emmy Hennings:Poet

Richard Huelsenbeck:Poet

Hans Arp:Painter and Sculptor

Hugo Ball:Poet and Producer

Hans Richter:

Max Ernst & Hans Arp Switzerland,Birth Place of Dada(Physiomythological Flood Picture),1920 DA

DAHans Richter:Painter and Filmmaker

Emmy Hennings:Poet

Richard Huelsenbeck:Poet

Zürich 1916

DA

�“Revolted by the butchers and theslaughterhouses of the world war, we inZurich devoted ourselves to the arts. Whilethe thunder of the batteries rumbled in thedistance, we pasted, we recited, weversified, we sang with all our soul. Wesearched for an elementary art that would,we thought, to cure the madness of the

Hans ArpUntitltled (Enak�’s Tear) 1917

g ,age.�”(Arp, quoted in Trachtman 2006, 75)

�“all this civilised carnage [is]atriumph of European intelligence�”(Ball, quoted in Trachtman 2006, 75)

8/08/2011

9

�“when these reactionsare exhausted,annihilated by theSatanic insistence of acontinuous andprogressive �“whatfor?�”, what remains,what dominates isi diff �”indifference.�”

(Tzara 1992, 1)

Hananh Hoch Da Dandy 1919

�“DADA MEANSNOTHING�”(Tzara 2005, 480)

�“ To disorder meanings todisorder notions�” (Tzara1992, 36)

�“preamble = sardanapalusone = suitcasewoman = women

Hannah HochBourgeois Bridal Couple Quarrel 1919

trousers = waterif = moustache2 = threestick = perhapsafter = sightreadingirritant = emeraldvice = screwoctober = periscopenerve = �” (tzara 1992, 31)

DADA Theatre: �“Anti psychologic�”

�“the well made play (with its psychologicalanalyses, plots, characterizations, conflicts,and logical or emotional buildups of tension)are all rejected" (Knapp 1985, 26)

�“an abstraction, a concept referring to thean abstraction, a concept referring to theoccurrence of different events at the sametime...it turns the sequence a = b = c = d intoa�—b�—c�—d and attempts to transform theproblem of the ear into a problem of theface�” (Huelsenbeck 2005, 469)

8/08/2011

10

�“The people [are incited to] protest smashwindowpanes kill each other demolish fighthere come the police interruption. Boxingresumed.�”

�“Essentially the word �“Merz�” meansthe combination of all imaginablematerials for artistic purposes andtechnically the fundamentally equalvaluation of the individual materials.Thus Merz painting does not usecolour and canvas, brushes andpalette, but all materials visible tothe eye, and all necessary tools.Therefore it is unimportant whether

DADA Visual Art: �“Merz�”

R. Mutt (M. Du Champ)Fountain, 1917

Therefore it is unimportant whetherthe used materials have previouslybeen shaped for some purpose ornot. The wheel of a baby carriage,the wire net, string and cotton are allfactors on par with paint. The artistcreates by choosing, dividing, andde forming thesematerials.�”(Schwitters, quoted in Tractman2006, 68)

DADA Writing: Cut ups

Take a newspaper.Take some scissors.Choose from this paper and article of the length you want tomake your poem.Cut out the article.Next carefully cut out each of the words that makes up the articleand put them all in a bag.Shake gently.Next take out each cutting one after the otherCopy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bagThe poem will resemble you.And there you are an infinitely original author of charmingsensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.(Tzara 1992, 39)

8/08/2011

11

�“Every page should explode,�…because of its staggeringabsurdity, the enthusiasm of itsprinciples, or its typography. Onethe one had there is the worldtottering in its flight [thelayout] on the other hand therelayout]�…on the other hand thereare the new�…�”(Tzara 2005, 481)

ReferencesAndrews, W. 1990. The Surrealist Parade. New York: NewDirections.

Ball, H. 1996. Flight out of Time: A Dada Diary. (Berkeley:Califonria UP, 1996)

Ball, H. 2005. �“Kandinsky�” in J. A. Bookbinder Boston Modern:Figurative Expressions in Alternative Modernism. Lebanon, NH:New England College Press.New England College Press.

Benjamin, W. 1999. Illuminations. New York: Schocken Books.

Boccioni, U. Carra, C. Russolo, L. Balla, G. Severini, G. 1910.�“Manifesto of the Futurist Painters�”http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/painters.html. Accessed:14/7/2008.

Brandt, G. W. 1999.Modern Theories of Drama: A Selection ofWritings on Drama and Theatre, 1850. OUP.

ReferencesBürger, P. 2007. �“Modernism and the Avant Garde�” Whitworth,M. (ed)Modernism.Malden: Blackwell Books.

Huelsenbeck, R. 2003. �“The German Dada Manifesto�” in Jansen,H. W. and Jansen, A. F. History of Art: The Western Tradition.Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Huelsenbeck, R. 2005. �“En Avant Dada: A History of Dadaism�” inRainey, L. (ed)Modernism: An Anthology. Malden MA:Rainey, L. (ed)Modernism: An Anthology. Malden MA:Blackwell.

Hughes, R. 1980. The Shock of the New: Art and the Century ofChange. London: BBC.

Marinetti, F. T. 1972.Marinetti : Selected Writings. R.W. Flint(ed) (trans. A. Coppotelli) London: Secker and Warburg.

Nicholls, P. 1995.Modernisms: A Literary Guide. Basingstoke:Macmillan.

8/08/2011

12

ReferencesPerloff, M. 1986. The Futurist Movement: Avant Garde, AvantGuerre, and the Language of Rupture. Chicago UP.

White, J. J. 1990. Literary Futurism: Aspects of the First AvantGarde. New York: OUP.