"Dada is an armadillo. Everything is Dada"

Dada, or dadaism, was an art movement -- or as dadaists would prefer, an "anti-art" movement, that flourished in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France during World War I and the early days of the Weimar Republic (Weimare Republik). Dada started when a group of artists, disgusted with the Great War (WWI), assembled in Zürich, Switzerland at the now-famous Cabaret Voltaire. Dada continued during the beginning of the Weimar Republic; this era between World Wars was a time of great cultural advances in Western Europe. While there was relative freedom of expression (as evidenced by cabaret clubs, jazz, changing roles for women, and the like), Europeans were disillusioned by the devastating Great War (WWI) that had just occurred. This manifested itself in the Dada movement -- a flurry of visual art, theater, and poetry that united a loose collection of absurdist artists.

This absurdism is shown in this quote by French-Romanian performance artist Tristan Tzara:

"DADA doubts everything. Dada is an armadillo. Everything is Dada, too. Beware of Dada. Anti-dadaism is a disease: selfkleptomania, man’s normal condition, is DADA. But the real dadas are against DADA."

Dadaists called their movement an "anti-art" movement because they were rebelling against traditional aesthetics, politics, and norms. Dadaists were generally staunchly anti-war, and most felt that the traditional institutions of government, capitalism, and bourgeoisie were to blame for the Great War (WWI). Dadaists rejected traditional aesthetics, techniques, and traditions, opting for an avant-garde style that was often inaccessible or completely off-the-wall.

French poet Louis Aragon wrote of the dadaist mentality:
"No more painters, no more scribblers, no more musicians, no more sculptors, no more religions, no more royalists, no more radicals, no more imperialists, no more anarchists, no more socialists, no more communists, no more proletariat, no more democrats, no more republicans, no more bourgeois, no more aristocrats, no more arms, no more police, no more nations, an end at last to all this stupidity, nothing left, nothing at all, nothing, nothing."

Dada flourished in Zürich, Berlin, Cologne (Köln), Paris, and eventually New York City. Famous Dada artists included Hugo Ball, Hannah Höch, Jean Arp, Hans Richter, Otto Dix, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray, among many others. While Dada was eventually usurped by the more formal surrealist art movement and other art styles, Dada has had a long-lasting impact on the worlds of modern art and postmodern art.


Der Dada (cover)
Edited by Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, and George Grosz.
No. 3 (April 1920)



Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden by Otto Dix, 1926


Sources:
dadaism to sans serif: http://typophile.com/node/30008 (lots of good pix here and a link to Hugo Ball's famously weird performance piece)
http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann.php
http://strangewondrous.net/browse/subject/d/dada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

German Industrial + Other ramblings

.__.xx This is the 6th time I've tried starting this blog and it's not just because it's past 2am. ANYWAY moving on, German Industrial is essentially heavy industrial + someone yelling in German. Industrial in general for those folks who don't know started in the mid-1980's as a way of coining artists who were under the label Industrial Records. It later moved on as a way of mimicking the sounds of the industrialization of society and progression into a more technology based type of noise as opposed to your typical chamber orchestra.

Wikipedia describes Industrial as (Obviously written by some cranky and pretentious music critic (if you look on youtube most people just say GEIL and get it over with then again I'm sure those are the kind of people to sit on park benches and scare little kids...)) :

Early Industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as mutilation, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian imagery or symbolism, as well as forms of audience abuse. The typical themes of industrial music include decay, decomposition, disorders, helplessness, horror, irresolution, madness, paranoia, persecution, secrecy, unease and terror. Listener responses were sad, dark, anxious, futuristic, death, urban, violent and anguish.

...I don't that's entirely true...keep in mind this is coming from someone who listened to Rob Zombie in 6th grade before going to her cello lessons.... But industrial is not everyone's cup of tea. The only way I can describe it is really bassy, yelling, machinery sounding noise. Before you judge, try some out for your self..maybe start with something lighter before moving on to something hardcore.

If you were curious about the relation between industrial and Germany...

Germany has this huge music festival every year called M'era Luna in which all the goths or whatever go there and do there stuff and most of the industrial songs you'll find on Youtube have German lyrics.

Another thing I've noticed that's usually surrounding industrial are "cybergoths" who listen to industrial/electro/doomcore and are most noticeable by there brazing goggles/hairfalls/gas masks.

I think that's all I have to say...

Here are some links if you're interested!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPSsb4BImV8&feature=related

(I tried finding one with minimal lyrics because they're sometimes inappropreiete and it's hard to find lyrics that are translated, though I think the ones here are in english..they may be slightly violent, but then again I usually end up tuning it out halfway so I'm not entirely sure...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybergoth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH1YHGeg9QM

(documentary about cybergoths)

Longest German Word

Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft -

(one word, no hyphen)
(die, 79 letters, 80 with new German spelling [one more 'f' in ...dampfschifffahrts...])

"association of subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services" (the name of a pre-war club in Vienna) - Not really useful.

(I recorded myself saying it but it won't let me upload it...)

When and Why did the Berlin Wall Fall?

The Berlin wall was considered destroyed in 1989 but it actually physically began to fall in 1990. East Berliners rebelled against their governments restrictions. The government was scared so they lifted the blockade. On the day the blockade was lifted people rushed over wall that they couldn't cross before. The wall crumbled, end of story.

Why the funny course title?

This course is called "Germany to Germany" for a few reasons.

First, we are traveling from former West Germany to former East Germany. We will discuss the history of how there came to be two German countries and how they were reunited.

So, West Germany --> East Germany.

We will also be reflecting a great deal on the Germany of the past and how that influences the Germany of the future.

So, Germany past --> Germany future.

Also, it is the name of a great Ratatat song.

Willkommen!

Welcome to the travel and research blog of Menlo School's Germany to Germany Knight School course. This is a place where students will post research findings prior to departure. Whenever we can, we will also post our observations and reflections while we are in Europe. We are looking forward to a great class!