DADA
a digital game of creative and fallow prompts
The prompts I have devised this week take their cue from the Dadaists. I first used a similar technique with Steve Toase and Imove on the Haunt Harrogate project where participants plucked prompts out of a hat on the streets of the spa town and followed where they led. I thought an interactive digital version would be fun to try. They can be used as creative prompts or for-the-hell-of-it fallow prompts.
The Tate defines Dada as:
‘an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature.’
Think DuChamp’s readymade urinal, cutup poetry, surreal photomontage or improvisation. Often aligned with the radical left, Dadaism was anti-war, anti-bourgeois, and anti-traditional art, and led up to the surrealist movement.
Bowie used the technique to devise his songs, and Brian Eno and Peter Schmidy produced a set of cards called Oblique Strategies for creatives in the 1970s, editions of which are still on sale. In the absurd state of affairs in which we find ourselves, perhaps there are worse ways of responding than through play. Follow this link to do so: https://rebeccawrites.itch.io/dada-inspired
Upcoming Workshops and Courses
ticketsource.co.uk/lakeside-creative-arts-centre
Poetry from the Fallow Space - course and one-to-one feedback with The Poetry Pharmacy and Poet, Creative Facilitator and Performer, Becky Cherriman
Online
Mondays from 13th April-1st June, 6:30-830 pm, BST
suitable for anyone who wants to allow a little more poetry and stillness into their life.
Poets know better than most the need for quiet, reflective time, for the in-between space in which inspiration and imagination can spring. Psychoanalyst Masud Khan, believed that stepping away from impulsive productivity to ‘lie fallow’ could aid creativity. Poetry from the Fallow Space explores how activities that encourage ‘soft fascination’ can help our poetry breathe, allowing us to return to the world replenished. During this course, we will read poetry together, and Becky will guide you through fallow experiences, offering a creative toolkit of prompts to experiment with.
Further details and how to book are here.
Sources
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573
https://enoshop.co.uk/products/oblique-strategies?variant=51221629501780