[00:00.00]NARRATOR: Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.[00:06.82]MALE PROFESSOR: All right.[00:08.65] So last week we started talking about the painters and sculptors who were part of the art movement called Dada. [00:15.00]But I don't want you to think the ideas we introduced last time were limited to painting, sculpture, that sort of thing. [00:21.87]So today I want to move beyond the visual arts and talk a bit about Dada in the performing arts, in theater.
[00:29.03]But let's start by reviewing what Dada is, OK?[00:32.55]As you will recall, Dada began in Switzerland, in the city of Zurich, in 1916. [00:40.16]The artists who studied it were reacting against traditional notions of beauty, of reason, of progress, which had been standards of western thought since the 18th century.
[00:53.00]They looked around. And well, I mean, the First World War was raging, so they didn't see much beauty, reason or progress in the world. [01:01.35]Instead, they saw a world that was chaotic, random, a world that didn't make sense. [01:07.22]And if that's the way the world was, well, they wanted their art to reflect that.[01:12.75]So let's—let's review a couple of key ideas that were the backbone of Dada art.
[01:20.48]First, the Dadaists wanted to completely reject the classical idea of art. [01:26.01]Classical ideas like proportion, balance, all the things you think about when you think about great art. [01:32.72]"Great art" involved reason, the logic, the beauty that the Dadaists wanted to overthrow.
[01:39.79]So, well, you know, to a Dadaist, classical artwork was a reflection of outdated thinking! [01:47.36]That's why Dadaists created sculptures like the ones we saw last week. [01:52.13]Remember the stool with the bicycle wheel mounted on top? [01:55.32]I wouldn't exactly called that beautiful, would you? [01:58.50]But of course it wasn't meant to be. [02:01.40]That was the point![02:03.04]OK. So another key Dada idea we talked about was the embracing of randomness. Right? [02:08.07]Uh, if life is random, said the Dadaists, why would we make art that has order and logic? [02:14.42]And so we have that collage we looked at, with an artist took different, you know, cut-out squares of colored paper, threw them onto the canvas, and wherever they landed, that was the composition of the work![02:25.57]Another favorite of the Dadaists was something called chance poetry. [02:29.99]A chance poet would pull words out of a hat and that would be, well, that would make up the poem! [02:36.58]And this idea of chance and randomness was a key element of Dadaism because the whole world seemed so random to them.[02:44.85]So now let's take a look at how Dadaist ideas represented to audiences in highly unconventional...well,[02:52.92]I am not even sure how to categorize these theatrical events. [02:56.85]I suppose you just have to call them shows. [02:59.93]These shows started in Zurich in a place called the Cabaret Voltaire.[03:05.00]The rejection of classical western art, well, you see this in the nature of what took place at the Cabaret Voltaire. [03:13.93]They didn't put on plays or operas there. [03:16.57]What they did was throw out all conventions.
[03:19.25]They mixed everything and anything together. [03:21.70]They would...it might start with somebody reading a poem. [03:25.67]Then somebody else playing an instrument, followed by a display of paintings, followed by somebody else chanting, followed by somebody else banging on a big drum, and someone dressed in a robot costume jumping up and down. [03:39.31]So it's not like a play. [03:42.25]There's no real plot development here like you'd find in the traditional theatrical performance.[03:47.97]The performers at the Cabaret Voltaire would also get the audience involved, which was extremely unusual. [03:56.63]Think about a traditional play. [03:58.67]The action's self-contained. [04:00.66]The actors act as if there is no one watching, right? [04:04.06]It's like a world unto itself. [04:05.95]Well, at the Cabaret Voltaire, audience members could get up on stage and dance, or chant, or shout and sing from their seats.
[04:14.31]And every night would be different, because there would be a different audience and a different set of acts and displays.[04:20.23]So all these could get pretty chaotic. [04:23.33]No barriers between the performers and the audience, and no barriers between kinds of art either. [04:29.79]Think about it: poetry, paintings, music, dance...all on the same stage and often at the same time!
[04:36.95]This is what the Dadaists had in mind. [04:39.65]When they set out to make art that reflected their own idea of reality, it didn't make sense. [04:45.72]But why should it?!
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