After my talk with Lee around surrealism I had a look into the concept of chance and all the different theories and techniques that were developed from the movement.
I found some very interesting perspectives and techniques around the power of imagination and creativity. Many of the surrealists believed that the rational mind repressed the power of imagination. They believed that in order to unlock the power of imagination they needed to access their subconscious and allow a loss of conscious control over the process.
The concepts behind surrealists was influenced by psychologist Sigmund Freud.
One technique developed is ‘Automatic drawing’ in which the user draws without conscious control – allowing the subconscious to show through.
Exquisite Corpse – A drawing game played by surrealists in order to collaborate and embrace chance for intriguing and unimaginable results. This game involves drawing a body part each, folding the paper each time the next starts in order to conceal what was previous drawn. I was surprised to find the origins of this game as this is something that I think a vast majority of children have played at some point. I even have an example of one I did with my friends at a party pinned to my wall, and yet I never knew that the origins lie within my most beloved art movement – Surrealism.
I find these concepts all incredibly engaging and fascinating and I began to think about applying these in regards to my project. What if the computer could act as this ‘subconscious’ part of our brain, in order to unlock the artist’s true potential of imagination? Or could the computer prompt the user is such a way that they were able to access this state?
I also thought about the idea behind exquisite corpse, and imagined a version in which it is played with the computer. A process which has much more back and forth between man and machine would be an incredibly valuable experience.
VCD 453 - Jason Fastier 