Historical Design Movement of My Choice - Dadaism
The following essay is a part of my Design Heritage module assignment. It is not a 3 minutes read and please expect constant googling on strange art terms.
If you wish to copy any part of the essay, please keep the reference together with you. You might have trouble dealing with the grammar mistakes. You are warned. Thanks in advance.
Dadaism, a word that makes you wonder is there such as word on earth? What does it mean literally and why the name of “Dadaism” was used instead of other random names that a 3 year old kid could call. For me, the name itself had already snatched the spotlight among all of the modern design movements.
Unlike other art / design movements, Dadaism itself is an anti-art movement, or to be precise, it is an “anti-movement” movement. This unusual art logic evolves around and influence different forms, mainly philosophy, painting and sculpture. Dadaism is a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and cultural values. It was born as a negative reaction to WWI. It sees art as a bourgeois indulgence, and must be destroyed as it was part of the system. It is somewhat against expressionism and labelled the movement as blind to the world, turning its back to misery. Whereas Dada is one with the world and endorses spontaneity. At the same time, it was nihilistic, often deliberately negative and confronted existentialism [1].
Adolf The Superman: Swallows Gold and Spits Junk
Despite being strongly labelled as an anti-art movement, Dadaism do produce their kind of art in reaction of the current society (post World World One). It may sound ironic, just like a vegan who claims to eat no meat but publicly open a beef kebab restaurant, but their extreme sarcasm is what makes Dadaist a winner as an anti-art artists. One of the most controversial artworks during the Dada period was a urinal signed by Marcel Duchamp named Fountain, which was later submitted to the Society of Independent Artists exhibit in 1917. It was rejected, despite the paid submission entry, and caused an uproar among the Dadaists [1].The urinal itself spoke no meaning. In fact, it’s just an ordinary urinal that Duchamp received it from his female friend who had adopted a male pseudonym, Richard Mutt, who sent me him a porcelain urinal as a sculpture. Shortly after its initial exhibition, Fountain was lost. According to Duchamp biographer Calvin Tomkins, the best guess is that it was thrown out as rubbish by Stieglitz, a common fate of Duchamp's early ready-mades [2].
Why dadaism
Up until this paragraph, I haven’t really explained the reason why I chose Dadaism as historical design movement of my choice. The main reason is simple - Dadaism was born to be one of a kind rebellious art. Although I was (not now) personally a person who hates art for its unnecessary presence that cause confusion to modern design which focus functionality and usability, I still understand the importance of art in design thinking. Only art can push the boundaries of design thinking. Dadaism is a perfect reflection of the old me.
Dadaism is also the design movement which influenced the following modern art such as surrealism, action painting, pop art, installations, happenings and conceptual art [1]. Dadaist who specialised in creating photo montage made a realisation among modern artists that this kind of artificial immersive virtual reality artwork is a result of technical exploitation in materials [3]. This realisation was quickly followed by modern artists to paint new things, such as surrealist who tried to combine different objects into one unifying art. Although the first photomontage could be traced back into mid-Victorian era, this kind of technique is so great it made a huge impact even on digital / contemporary art. One thing that digital artist do not realise they are almost similar to Dadaist, is that they paint and edit images using multiple layers. Although contemporary photograph editors such as Adobe Photoshop and GIMP are not directly inspired by Dadaism, the kind of art that photomontage can create will always be one of a kind [4].
Adobe Photoshop User Interface
How do they work: photomontage and installations
The origins of the term Dada are controversial. Some say it is Slavonic for "yes-yes", which reflects the enthusiasm of the movement. Others say that Richard Huelsenbeck and Hugo Ball chose the world randomly by spearing a knife into a French dictionary---which landed on the word "Dada", meaning hobby horse, which fit the movement for its childishness and naivety [1]. One of the most important figures in Dadaism is Marcel Duchamp. Although he only made several artwork for in Dada, his idea of “ready-mades” to question the very notion of Art, and the adoration of art, which Duchamp found “unnecessary" [5] is breathtakingly sarcastic.
“My idea was to choose an object that wouldn't attract me, either by its beauty or by its ugliness. To find a point of indifference in my looking at it, you see.” [5]
Bottle Rack (1914), a bottle drying rack signed by Duchamp, is considered to be the first "pure" ready-made. Prelude to a Broken Arm (1915), a snow shovel, also called In Advance of the Broken Arm, followed soon after. His Fountain, a urinal signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt", shocked the art world in 1917. Fountain was selected in 2004 as "the most influential artwork of the 20th century" by 500 renowned artists and historians.
Bottlerack situated at the middle, Fountain situated at the right
In 1919, Duchamp made a parody of the Mona Lisa by adorning a cheap reproduction of the painting with a moustache and goatee. To this he added the inscription L.H.O.O.Q., a phonetic game which, when read out loud in French quickly sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul". This can be translated as "She has a hot ass", implying that the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability. It may also have been intended as a Freudian joke, referring to Leonardo da Vinci's alleged homosexuality. Duchamp gave a "loose" translation of L.H.O.O.Q. as "there is fire down below" in a late interview with Arturo Schwarz. According to Rhonda Roland Shearer, the apparent Mona Lisa reproduction is in fact a copy modelled partly on Duchamp's own face. Research published by Shearer also speculates that Duchamp himself may have created some of the objects which he claimed to be "found objects”. [5]
His statement of rejection towards “retinal art” is made crystal clear with the article below.
In focus: Duchamp’s theory of the readymade
The theory behind the readymade was explained in an anonymous editorial published in the May 1917 issue of avant-garde magazine The Blind Man run by Duchamp and two friends: Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, and placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.
There are three important points here: first, that the choice of object is itself a creative act. Secondly, that by cancelling the ‘useful’ function of an object it becomes art. Thirdly, that the presentation and addition of a title to the object have given it ‘a new thought’, a new meaning. Duchamp’s readymades also asserted the principle that what is art is defined by the artist. Choosing the object is itself a creative act, cancelling out the useful function of the object makes it art, and its presentation in the gallery gives it a new meaning. This move from artist-as-maker to artist-as-chooser is often seen as the beginning of the movement to conceptual art, as the status of the artist and the object are called into question. [6]
Who defines art: A question from Fluxus
Fluxus is an international group of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. Like the Futurists and Dadaists before them, Fluxus artists did not agree with the authority of museums to determine the value of art, nor did they believe that one must be educated to view and understand a piece of art. There is no concrete definition of Fluxus, since members think that the act of defining a movement is too limiting. It is described as "intermedia", seeking to expand the definitions and reaches of art. It often promoted a Do- It-Yourself mindset. For example, in 1966 Ben Vautier produced a matchbox with directions on the cover saying,
"USE THESE MATCHES TO DESTROY ALL ART - MUSEUMS ART LIBRARY'S - READY-MADES - POP-ART AND AS I BEN SIGNED EVERYTHING WORK OF ART - BURN - ANYTHING - KEEP LAST MATCH FOR THIS MATCH -"
It is assumed that many of the boxes were burned, following the instructions. Fluxus artists would often produce copies of an object to devalue them. [1]
Dadaism is indeed a bold movement. Being an anti-art and also an anti-political movement, Dadaism was viewed as nihilistic. Although Dadaism, in some point, might be seen as an uncivilised movement, but if we took that perspective out from the Dada context, what’s left is just the pure “art” of anti-art that soon evolved into pop art that influenced the future generation through paintings and musics. Dadaism did not survive long and in fact The First International Dada Fair during 1920, ironically, was the beginning of its own destruction [1]. For me, Dadaism had a big vision of demolishing the stereotype of what we call art as art and also a tiny realisation how going back to the basic by believing nothing could lead us to another journey in art this world is currently embracing: the modern art.
REFERENCE
[1] ARTEDELIC | Home. (2016). ARTEDELIC | Home. [online] Available at: http:// artedelic.wixsite.com/blog/single-post/2015/11/19/DADAISM-History-Characteristics- Artists-and-ReInterpretation [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
[2] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Fountain (Duchamp). [online] Available at: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp) [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
[3] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Photomontage. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Photomontage#History [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
[4] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Photomontage. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Photomontage#Techniques [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
[5] En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Marcel Duchamp. [online] Available at: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp#Readymades [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
[6] Tate.org.uk. (2016). Readymade. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/ online-resources/glossary/r/readymade#infocus [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
