Snow, loss and compression

Wow – lost two weeks to snow and me out of town. Whatever rhythm we had established has been curtailed and will take some time to get back. This is interesting, since the last time I taught the class I feel we had really peaked around this point in the term. This time around we still have along way to go – which is good. I always find it odd re-teaching a class since part of the objective is to hit all the same marks that were hit last time, but also discover new material. Today was a compressed day to make up for lost time, and so we did dada projects in the first part of the class and then talked about them the rest of the time.

Three projects – make a dada poem, make a dada collage or photomontage and create a simultaneous poem. Executing the projects in ten minutes each is not the hard part, but missing out on seeing what everyone has created or what happens when the students get board with these projects is not possible in that amount of time. So, t was just a taste. I seem to recall last time I taught the class dada day was what broke some of the energy open.

From the projects it was a quick romp through some basic dada ideas. I am leaning on Roselee Goldberg’s book to provide some of the historical context. It is just impossible to cover both and do projects in the amount of time we have in class. So – the main question was – if, as Danto suggests, the dadas were basically rejecting western culture how did the projects exemplify that? We focused in on things like chance, randomness, and nonsense – with a health dose of not taking any thing seriously, but also seriously at the same time.

One of the connections I don’t think I have ever made as strongly as today is what position the spectator is put into by statements like “dada is a farce of nothingness in which all higher questions are involved.” Ball fractures the notion of western logic by creating a statement that demands you hold “yes” and “no” in mind simultaneously. He doesn’t decide which side to come down on – the spectator does.

The same is also true of Duchamp’s readymades. With pieces like the urinal he is posing fundamental philosophical questions about art but not giving an answer. His pieces, by virtue of being conceptual in nature, demand a spectator to complete the work. In short, the urinal isn’t art unless someone looks at it that way. I am not sure the same can be said for, say, Michelangelo’s David. But possibly it can if it is viewed outside of the western cultural tradition.

In the end, an interesting day – compressed, but not without value.