EX121 DADA inspired randomness
Dada was a European avant-garde art movement created during the First World War in Zurich in response to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by Dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature. For many participants, the movement was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests, which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war, and against the cultural and intellectual conformity—in art and more broadly in society—that corresponded to the war.
The precursor to this movement was ‘anti-art’, which was coined by Marcel Duchamp around 1913 to characterise works that challenge accepted definitions of art.
Chance
Dada loved playing with randomness and chance. You can read more about the history and philosophy of using chance in this wonderful article. https://arthistoryunstuffed.com/dada-and-chance/
Randomness
For this weeks exercise I would like you to explore intentionally adding an element of chance and randomness into your photographic practice. The hardest question is what element of randomness or chance do you add. Think about what areas you would like to push into, and which ones you don’t. For example if you have just recently gotten into a particular genre or are totally engrossed a particular photographic subject, I suggest you stay with it, and instead think about how a bit of chance and randomness can be introduced into what you are already working on.
We have done an exercise where you find a random spot to photograph from. We have also tried shooting with one focal length and at another time with a fixed aperture. If you haven’t done any of these, then you may consider them.
Here is a list of possibilities, suggestions, ideas to bounce off:
randomises your location to photograph in
randomise the time you are to go out photographing
randomise the lens
randomise the subject
randomise a style
A really easy way to introduce a random element, yet keeping some constraints on it, is to write some options on pieces of paper. Put them in a hat and draw one. Then go and do it.
For example you could write different times you could go out photographing on the paper. Sunrise, pre dawn, night, mid day, mid morning, etc of course you would only put times you could realistically do down.
Another example is you could write all of your lenses down on pieces of paper, and let randomness choose your lens for the week, or day or shoot.
Whilst playing with your chosen randomness see if you can come up with a triptych. Post the three photographs as a triptych in our forum.
My Triptych is from being put into a location by someone else. In this case it was Freeman Paterson, who chose my spot for me. I stayed there for an hour or two photographing without moving.
Post your work in the forum
We will discuss this in our class next Tuesday.