06/03/11
Dada meetings

The Dada movement was born in Switzerland as a reaction to WWI and anger at modern society. Artists, intellectuals and writers joined together to create 'non-art'. The artists were serious about their work but it was sarcastic, silly and frankly ridiculous yet amusing and enjoyable to those who went to the meetings and performances. It was an escape from the devastation going on outside as war raged and the Battle of the Somme saw hundreds of thousands of men killed.

"We held Dadaist meetings, charged a few marks admission and did nothing but tell people the truth, that is, abuse them. The news spread quickly and soon our meetings were sold out, crammed with people wanting to be scandalized or just after fun. Between insults we performed 'art,' but the performances were as a rule interrupted."

--George Grosz, The Autobiography of George Grosz [1955]

An example of a Dada performance; Hugo Ball performs his 'sound experiments' wearing a cardboard suit

"avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind"

Reactionary, Performative, Expressive, Distracting, Indulging, Fantastical, Ridiculous

06/03/11
Revisiting old ideas and coming up with new ones
Having spent the last month or so planning and making the look book and then the film I had got behind with things in my sketchbook as usually its easier to quickly blog an idea. Ive spent the last week catching up with that side of the project, revisiting past research has helped me to move forward and come up with a whole new set of ideas and a few potential concepts for my final space.

I had time to think about what I learnt from making my book and film, the look book giving me the idea of escapism and then expanding on that with the film. Thinking about escapism as an individual pursuit, how it means something different to everyone, we aren't all after a big green field. Can it ever be group experience as well? The butterfly 'character' in my film also made me think about Lucy and her role in Bibliotherapy, do we need someone to tell/show us how to escape?

An expression of my thoughts and ideas at this point in the project in the style of Picabia's The Dada Movement

In my look book I demonstrated the importance of tea breaks which is something I want to continue looking in to. I discussed it with Fabrizio in my last tutorial and he suggested escapism for him can be as simple as grabbing a tea/coffee from pret in the mornings before work. We also spoke about Dadaism and how they held vibrant meetings, poetry readings, performances in clubs and cafes in the 1920's. I found this really relevant and interesting, this could be the perfect environment for Lucy; creative, cosy, intimate, people talking and sharing, staging and storytelling. Its certainly something I will think about more closely.
I have also had ideas about escapism in terms of addiction, repetition, distraction from unpleasant reality.