Drama 360 FALL & WINTER 2009/10/Thursday October 22: The European Avant-Garde: Dada ***

Thursday October 22: The European Avant-Garde: Dadaism

Readings: 1.The ABC’s of DADA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkIJ0odFxA&feature=channel_page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJICH4R9n8w&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yprAZPx5hXs&feature=related

In the first clip, they talk about the origins of Dada in Zurich (1916). It was created as a protest to the war, as well as a means of expressing a new mentality. Thus it was not only about art but firmly grounded in politics as well. In the attempts to create a new ethic and moral code, men and women from Germany, Romania, and Austria were determined to use art as a major factor in the process. Disgusted by the war, those in Zurich separated themselves and spent their time singing, painting, and writing poetry. It was while devoting themselves to the fine arts that something new began to emerge. Dada was created with the opening of the Cabaret Voltaire. Upon bringing masks to the house, the creation of Dada started to bloom when the artists realized that these masks called for more than just specific costumes, but seemed to require a sort of "theatrical madness". A year or so later the first of many "sound poems" were created laying the foundation for the vocal creation and "structure" of Dada. As time went on further developments of Dada emerged as artists found new ways to portray this curious new art form. Costumes, and puppets were incorporated. Paintings, sculptures, and other forms of visual art were also added. Later, dance was also brought forth to Dada. Still later it spread into the world of abstract films.

The second clip mentions certain "rules" or points brought forth from the Dada Manifesto. For example, in order to "achieve certainty as to the truth of life" one had to become unemployed and by doing so reach a point of experience. The political toll of Dada was one of radical Communism and it would regularly bash former art forms vying for complete freedom. Yet they were not really ideologists, but indeed were revolutionary. They wanted to change the world, without any particular idea of how it should be.

I really appreciated the idea that “Dada is what you can make out of yourself”. That pretty much leaves you open to anything that you think is possible, with the only necessary tool being yourself, and anything else you’re mind thinks of. I think that Dadaism was a better way to revolt, as compared to futurism, in my opinion. This is because they served to annihilate the current societal standards, without the use of violence, and in fact, were against war altogether. However, I feel as though for a group of people who want so badly to revolt against something, there are too many rules and regulations guiding everyone. This holds true for most of the movements.

The third clip refers to Dada being considered the enemy of Italian Futurism, and yet tells of how Dada took over some of their forms of expression such as brutism, the simultaneous poem, and typo-collage. Dada seemed to be nothing and everything at the same time.

"What DADA was at the beginning and what it turned into is completely irrelevant compared with what it means today"...Huelsenback

Dada wasn’t just a new art form. It was “a new kind of mentality.” It couldn’t be categorized as a single form, because it appeared everywhere from politics to painting. The people practicing Dada “wanted to change the world but without any particular idea.” In the video, there was a collage that had been nailed and the artist had made it “in order to enrich normal paintings.” Some Dadaists saw themselves as engineers, “pretend[ing] to construct and assemble [their] work in the style of a mechanic.” Everyone had a different idea of what Dadaism was and expressed their version of it in different ways.

The costumes and masks that at first inspired Dadaism were continued on throughout the movement partially because of necessity. Sophie Taeuber-arp (I believe that's her name?) was a dancer involved in the dada movement. She created several pieces that seem to be somewhat iconic to the dada movement. Dada, at the time, was not well received and her job was threatened if she continued with her practice of dada. She began dawning masks during her performances. It's funny to think that later widespread unemployment would be a pillar that dada would later strive to meet.

OR

1.Huelsenbeck, Richard. "From En Avant Dada: A History of Dadism, 1920." Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics. Ed. Herschel B. Chipp. Los Angeles: U of Californa Press, 1968. 376-82. 2.Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara / Marcel Janco / Richard. "L'amiral Cherche Une Maison a Louer, 1916 " Performed by Theophil Maier Performed by Trio Exvoco (Hanna Aurbacher, and Ewald Liska). http://ubu.artmob.ca/sound/dada_for_now/Dada_For_Now_04_Tzara_Janco.mp3

In Richard Huelsenbeck's article, he talks about the creation of Dadaism due to a circle of people who were all driven out of their homes due to the war, himself being one of these original members. Throughout this article, he talks about the slow discovery of what Dadaism is. They began with a criticism of the war itself, saying "the war happened for autocratic, sordid, and materialistic reasons." The people who were praising realism were now being crushed by it in the form of the war, and so their ideology was beginning to change with their new found poverty, namely in Berlin. Dadaism was first defined as "the voluntary destruction of the bourgeois world of ideas." The word 'Dada' is french for 'wooden horse,' but its meaning became more relevant as dadaism was slowly created.

Dadaism was a movement that was seen as a revolt, where artists like Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco expressed their views on the war. Dada was not art, but it was known as “anti-art”. Dada was supposed to represent everything opposite to what art stood for. An interesting form of Dadaism is Dadaist poetry. Basically this was random words put together in a nonsensical way. As stated by Dr. Barry Yzereef, “Dadaism has no meaning and was never designed to have a purpose.” What’s interesting is that in our performance creation class, when asked what’s the meaning to the performance, Eric has taught us that why do we ask that question, maybe there is no meaning. - Aziz

Dadaism started as a fight against naturalism, and a revolt against the shallow reasons for the war. Naturalism for the dadaists was "A psychological penetration of the motives of the bourgeois, which brought percepts of the bourgeois morality," and this morality may be tied back to the cause of the war and the suffering of the people during this period. Naturalistic art praised the society that was the cause for the war, and in the attempted portrayal of what is real, the truth was missed. Archipenko, an artist of the period who used plastic for abstract art said art must neither be realistic nor idealistic, it must be true (i.e. above the imitation of nature). So the dadaists took this idea and created bruitism, or 'noise music.' They used noise with imitative effects, such as a chorus of typewriters, kettledrums, rattles, etc., to suggest the "awakening of the capital." Noise is a direct call to action, and every move naturally produces noise, so it is therefore the best representation of life. As Huelsenbeck states, "Music is an activity of reason, where bruitism is life itself, because it cannot be judged by a book, but rather it is a part of our personality." Bruitism is then a return to nature. He then went on to create the demands of Dadaism, where one important one was to say that everyone needs to experience poverty in order to see the truth of life, and to be accustomed to experience.

I really enjoyed this reading because I felt it moved Dadaism into a more humble yet more insightful place then where Marinetti placed futurism. For the futurists, war seemed to be in place to perpetuate destruction, where for the Dadaists it was in place to show the flaws of the bourgeois and realists and at the same time reveal life as it truly is, a "spontanteous eruption of possibilities, a symphony of cries, shots, commands, embodying an attempted solution to the problem of life in motion." (Huelsenbeck, p.379). There is no rhythm or idealism in war, and it is raw, chaotic, and spontaneous. Life as noise makes sense, and if we look for beauty and idealism in nature it is simply our reason at work and not life how it really is.--Cody.thompson 21:44, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I found Huelsenbeck's article on Dadaism and its origins quite insightful! I found it ironic that during the process when the Dadaists were trying to defy what the Bourgeois idealized, a naturalistic world that brought us to war and destruction, through an anti-art movement, a new "art" form was actually created. In this art form, the Dadaists were trying to bring us closer to the concept "true" that should be present in art and protest against the horrific, materialistic, and even idealistic world that the Bourgeois gave us. What I also found interesting about Dadaism is that the idea of the creator was sometimes more important than what was even created.

Masks and costumes could be used to disguise the actor. A female actor could be assumed as a male character by wearing a masculine mask or costume. I recall my former drama 240 teacher also mentioning that actors would use costumes and masks to play various roles, rather than just portraying one character. Hitler should have worn one during the course of his leadership. – That two faced jerk! In the You Tube video “The ABC’s of DADA” it seems as though that time period was very chaotic and oddly structured. The art displayed reminded me of the feeling of when something seems too cluttered.

From the ABC's of Dada I really enjoyed the quote "Dada is what you can make out of yourself". In comparison to old theatrical ideas where the final product is the art. The new formed idea that you can make yourself into something to me is more creative. We always discuss that we ourselves are the instrument and I wonder if this was a dada idea. The idea that we must make ourselves. I also wonder if dadaism emerged from an incredibly structured time hoping to rebel against it. As stated above it was messy and cluttered--maybe this was completely intentional.To take something structured and rebel and create something messy something completely spontaneous. Ck

The part I enjoyed most was at 3:33 in the third video, when it was asking, "What is DaDa?" Huelsenbeck said, "What DaDa was at the beginning and what it turned into is completely irrelevant compared with what it means today." That quote alone in itself is confusing, but as the person above quoted, "what you can make out of yourself" really undoes all the confusion. I think that, it is completely irrelevant today because if Dada is what you can make out of yourself, then Dada, like the average human being is going to be continuously changing. Because of the "make out of yourself" factor, even Dada five seconds ago will be completely irrelevant to Dada in the moment. I find that truly intriguing.

One of the quotes from the second clip is “The Dada’s were the first to take an ecstatic attitude towards life. And this may accomplish by hacking all the slogans of ethics and culture cloaks for weak muscles.” I found this excerpt very captivating to me because there is so much to our world today that is false almost virtually Turing us into one giant organization. The Dada’s worked against that, they wanted to improve the world in a completely different and exclusive way. Out of curiosity I had looked up the definition of Dadaism, I found they used the turn “irrational” in the definition. Whose place was it to say this manifesto was irrational? Just another perfect example on how the world around us is followed by a certain view and this is exactly was the Dada followers were preaching against.

I had heard a little bit about Dadaism before in other theatre history classes, and no matter how much I learn about this particular movement I still find myself utterly confused but interesting to learn more. In the videos they talked about the history of Dadaism and brought up some of their characteristics such as sound poems and how it was brought about not just as a movement in art but also in politics. I cracked open an old theatre history book I had lying around to try and figure this out a bit more, but to no real avail. I still think the bit in the text book helped clear some things up, so here is what it said: “Dada was grounded in rejection of the values that provoked World War 1. When that war broke out, many artists sought refuge in neutral Switzerland, where in 1916 Dada was born. Its principal spokesman was Tristan Tzara (1896-1963). Because insanity seemed the world’s state, the Dadaists sought in their art to replace logic, reason, and unity with chance and illogic. They presented a number of programs in which, like the futurists, they used simultaneity and multiple focuses. Among their favourite forms were “Chance Poems” (Created by placing words in a hat, drawing hem out at random, and reciting them) and “Sound Poems” (composed of nonverbal sounds). They also performed short plays, dances, and music. They recognized no barriers between art forms. Dada was essentially anarchistic, thumbing its nose at the hypocritical, discredited society and the art forms it venerated.” (From: The Essential Theatre (Ninth Edition) by Oscar G.Brockett / Robert J. Ball)

I found the reading by Richard Huelsenbeck was much easier to stand than most of the readings we have come into contact with during this class. He made it clear what the intentions of Dadaism were and how they came about. It may be this that draws me to be more inclined to prefer Dadaism to say, Futurism, even though ideas were borrowed from Futurism; including spontaneity which happened to be a great success for the Dadaists. I will not however that at the begining of the reading it just seemed that the creators of Dadaism were angsty and apathetic, they wanted change but didn't know to what extent or how. Living today in Canada we are not as affected by war as we would have been in 1917. The reading stated that all of Germany was weary and tired by 1917, wouldn't we want change too? Even without truly knowing how it would come about? So, make a sound that expresses yourself and your need to change the world. Any sound, as long as it comes from this inner urge and necessity.

I’m having a hard time grasping this concept of revolt. It is mentioned in both Dadaism and Futurism. And I’m trying to figure out what revolting really is and why it’s necessary. On one hand, revolt means “to break away from or rise against constituted authority.” So, in that manner, revolt is a type of rebelling, a challenging of sorts. This reminds me of mobs and revolutions, of violence and change and war; In a sense, of futurism. But revolt also means “to turn away in mental rebellion, utter disgust, or abhorrence.” It’s the idea of mental rebellion that seemed to resonate with me on the idea of Dadaism. Mental. Within one’s own mind. However, I’m never sure what I’m supposed to feel while being an audience member to these sorts of presentations. I find the hardest thing is to make that leap from passive observer to active thinker. To change from just absorbing what I’ve seen to creative an opinion, to achieving my own sort of “mental rebellion.” …not sure where I was going with this one.

As much as i understand the idea of "why does some thing HAVE to be the way its always been?", i cant help but also think of "why do we have to change everything to the utmost extreme?". i understand as well that the Dadaists were attempting to show the true nature of war and the problems with the bourgeoisie. this is great and i think it was the right thing to do. however i dont understand why they felt the need to go to the extreme opposite of everything. the notion of anarchy and desire to be different is commendable and understandable but i dont really feel like it was necessary. For example the Dadaist use of noise is one thing i sometimes find difficult to understand. they wanted to use noise, like a person slamming a chair on the ground, to express real emotions. my argument is if the person honestly does not feel like slamming the chair on the ground (theyre not angry), this action is no more real than a person crying in a play. like i said, i understand the Dadaists intentions i just dont think that theyre methods are always effective especially now. This is just something that has always made dadaism difficult for me to like.