Surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
in
art,
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
, and
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
uses numerous techniques and games to provide inspiration. Many of these are said to free imagination by producing a creative process free of
conscious
Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, a ...
control. The importance of the
unconscious as a source of inspiration is central to the nature of surrealism.
The Surrealist movement has been a fractious one since its inception. The value and role of the various techniques has been one of many subjects of disagreement. Some Surrealists consider
automatism and games to be sources of inspiration only, while others consider them starting points for finished works. Others consider the items created through automatism to be finished works themselves, needing no further refinement.
Aerography
Aerography is a technique in which a 3-dimensional object is used as a
stencil
Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object. The holes allow the pigment to reach only some parts of the surface creatin ...
with
spraypainting. Both conceptually and technically the airbrush painting method presented a new point of departure from a traditional way of painting. Man Ray recalled, "(…) It was thrilling to paint a picture, hardly touching the surface - a purely cerebral act, as it were."
Automatism
Automatism was used in different ways for each art:
* Automatic drawing
* Automatic painting
* Automatic writing
* Automatic poetry is
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
written using the
automatic method. It has probably been the chief surrealist method from the founding of surrealism to the present day. One of the oddest uses of automatic writing by a great writer was that of
W. B. Yeats; his wife, a spiritualist, practised it, and Yeats put large chunks of it into his prose work, ''
A Vision'' and much of his later poetry, but Yeats was not a surrealist. In French surrealism,
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
and
Philippe Soupault were often considered as the pioneers of this technique with their collection
Les Champs magnétiques (1919), who claimed to be the first collection only written through the automatic method : but recent studies
have proven the manuscripts showed many variants and corrections throughout the poems.
The Czech writer
Bohumil Hrabal used the method of automatic text in his famous book ''
I Served the King of England''. One chapter in the book is written as a single sentence, and at the end of the book Hrabal endorses the use of automatic writing.
Bulletism
Bulletism is shooting
ink at a blank piece of
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
. The artist can then develop images based on what is seen.
Calligram

A calligram is a text or
poem
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
of a type in which the words or letters make up a shape, particularly a shape connected to the subject of the text or poem. The concept was developed by
Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
in his 1918 collection ''
Calligrammes''.
Collage
Collage is the assemblage of different forms creating a new whole. For example, an artistic collage work may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, photographs, etc., glued to a solid support or canvas. Tearing papers can suggest an act of artistic experience, connoting an emotional or creative crisis.
Coulage
A coulage is a kind of
automatic or involuntary
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
made by pouring a molten material (such as
metal
A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
,
wax,
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods.
Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...
or
white chocolate) into cold
water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
. As the material cools it takes on what appears to be a random (or
aleatoric) form, though the physical properties of the materials involved may lead to a conglomeration of discs or spheres. The artist may use a variety of techniques to affect the outcome.
This technique is also used in the
divination
Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...
process known as
ceromancy.
Cubomania
Cubomania is a method of making
collage
Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...
s in which a picture or
image
An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...
is cut into squares and the squares are then reassembled without regard for the image. The technique was first used by the
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n surrealist
Gherasim Luca.
Cut-up technique
Cut-up technique is a literary form or method in which a text is cut up at random and rearranged to create a new text.
Decalcomania
Decalcomania is a process of spreading thick paint upon a canvas then—while it is still wet—covering it with further material such as paper or aluminium foil. This covering is then removed (again before the paint dries), and the resultant paint pattern becomes the basis of the finished painting. The technique was much employed by artists such as
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
.
Dream résumé
The dream résumé takes the form of an employment
résumé but chronicles its subject's achievements, employment, or the like, in
dream
A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...
s, rather than in waking life. Sometimes dream résumés contain the achievements of both, however.
Echo poem
An echo poem is a
poem
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
written using a technique invented by
Aurélien Dauguet in 1972. The poem is composed by one or more persons, working together in a process as follows.
The first "
stanza" of the poem is written on the left-hand column of a piece of paper divided into two columns. Then the "opposite", or 'echo', of the first stanza, in whatever sense is appropriate to the poem, is composed in the right-hand column of the page. The writing is done
automatically and often the "opposite" stanza is composed of a
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
correspondence to the first stanza.
For a longer work, the third stanza can then begin in the left-hand column as an "opposite" or a phonetic correspondence to what preceded it in the right-hand column. Then the fourth stanza might be an "opposite" or sound correspondence to what preceded it in the left-hand column, and so forth. When the poem is completed, the echo of the last phrase, line, or sentence, generally serves as the
title
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...
.
This is unrelated to the non-Surrealist
echo verse form which appears as a dialogue between the questions of a character and
the answers of the nymph
Echo.
Éclaboussure
Éclaboussure is a process in Surrealist painting where oil paints or watercolours are laid down and water or turpentine is splattered, then soaked up to reveal random splatters or dots where the media was removed. This technique gives the appearance of space and atmosphere. It was used in paintings by
Remedios Varo.
Entopic graphomania
Entopic graphomania
is a surrealist and automatic method of
drawing
Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots; these can be either "curved lines... or straight lines".
Ithell Colquhoun described its results as "the most austere kind of geometric abstraction."
The technique aims to stimulate creative process and subconscious associations. It is to be distinguished from "entoptic" methods of drawing or art-making, inspired by
entoptic phenomena.
The method was invented by
Dolfi Trost, who as the subtitle of his 1945 book ("''Vision dans le cristal. Oniromancie obsessionelle. Et neuf graphomanies entopiques''") suggests, included nine examples therein.
Trost believed in transformation of human consciousness through a dialectical process that can lead to a modification of human existence at both the personal and social level.
This method of "indecipherable writing" was supposedly an example of "
surautomatism", the controversial theory put forward by Trost and
Gherashim Luca in which surrealist methods would be practiced that "went beyond" automatism. In ''Dialectique de Dialectique'' they had proposed the further radicalization of surrealist automatism by abandoning images produced by artistic techniques in favour of those "resulting from rigorously applied scientific procedures," allegedly cutting the notion of "
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...
" out of the process of creating images and replacing it with chance and scientific rigour. However, the question has arisen whether an algorithm should be used to determine in what order to connect the dots to maintain the "automatic" nature of the method.
The method has been compared to the "
voronoi mathematical progression".
Étrécissements
Collage
Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...
is perceived as an additive method of visual poetry whereas Étrécissements are a reductive method. This was first employed by
Marcel Mariën in the 1950s. The results are achieved by the cutting away of parts of images to encourage a new image, by means of a pair of scissors or any other manipulative sharpened instrument.
Exquisite corpse
Exquisite corpse or Cadavre exquis is a method by which a collection of words or images are collectively assembled. It is based on an old parlour game known by the same name (and also as
Consequences) in which players wrote in turn on a sheet of paper, folded it to conceal part of the writing, and then passed it to the next player for a further contribution.
Frottage
Frottage is a method of creation in which one takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a "rubbing" over a textured surface. The drawing can either be left as it is or used as the basis for further refinement. The technique was developed in 1925 by
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
, who was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil.
Fumage
Fumage is a technique in which impressions are made by the
smoke
Smoke is an aerosol (a suspension of airborne particulates and gases) emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwante ...
of a
candle
A candle is an ignitable candle wick, wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a Aroma compound, fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time. ...
or
kerosene lamp on a piece of paper or canvas. This technique was introduced by
Wolfgang Paalen.
Games
In
Surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
, games are important not only as a form of recreation but as a method of investigation. The intention is to cut away the constraints of
rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...
and allow concepts to develop more freely and in a more random manner. The aim is to break traditional thought patterns and create a more original outcome.
Old games such as
Exquisite corpse, and newer ones, notably Time Travelers' Potlatch and Parallel Collage, have played a critical role.
Exquisite corpse is a method by which a collection of words or images are collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse or ''cadavre exquis'' in
French. Later the game was adapted to
drawing
Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
and
collage
Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...
.
Time Travelers'
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Scienc ...
is a game in which two or more players say what gift they would give to another person - this is usually an historical person who played a role in, or had an influence on, the formation of Surrealism.
Grattage
Grattage is a surrealist technique in
painting
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
in which (usually wet)
paint
Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...
is scraped off the canvas. It was employed by
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
and
Joan Miró.
Heatage
Heatage is an automatic technique developed and used by
David Hare in which an exposed but unfixed
photographic negative is heated from below, causing the
emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally Miscibility, immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloi ...
(and the resulting image, when developed) to distort in a random fashion.
Indecipherable writing
In addition to its obvious meaning of writing that is illegibile or for whatever other reason cannot be made out by the reader, indecipherable writing refers to a set of
automatic techniques, most developed by
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n surrealists and falling under the heading of
surautomatism. Examples include entoptic graphomania,
fumage and the movement of liquid down a vertical surface.
Involuntary sculpture
Surrealism describes as "involuntary sculpture" those made by absent-mindedly manipulating something, such as rolling and unrolling a movie ticket, bending a paper clip, and so forth.
Latent news
Latent news is a game in which an article from a
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
is cut into individual words (or perhaps phrases) and then rapidly reassembled; see also
Cut-up technique.
Movement of liquid down a vertical surface
Pictures can be produced by dripping or allowing a flow of some form of liquid down a vertical surface. The technique was invented by surrealists from
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
and said by them to be
surautomatic and a form of indecipherable writing.
Paranoiac-critical method
Paranoiac-critical method is a technique invented by
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
which consists of the artist invoking a paranoid state (fear that the self is being manipulated, targeted or controlled by others). The result is a deconstruction of the psychological concept of identity, such that subjectivity becomes the primary aspect of the artwork.
Parsemage
Parsemage is a
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
and
automatic method in the
visual art
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...
s invented by
Ithell Colquhoun in which dust from
charcoal or colored
chalk is scattered on the surface of water and then skimmed off by passing a stiff paper or cardboard just under the water's surface.
Photomontage
Photomontage is making of composite picture by cutting and joining a number of photographs.
Sifflage
Sifflage is the technique used by
Jimmy Ernst in which liquid paint is blown to inspire or reveal an image.
This is sometimes called "soufflage",
but Ernst's name was "sifflage".
The result can be seen in his ''Echo Plasm''.
Surautomatism
Surautomatism is any theory or act of taking automatism to its most absurd limits.
Triptography
Triptography is an automatic photographic technique whereby a roll of film is used three times (either by the same photographer or, in the spirit of Exquisite Corpse, three different photographers), causing it to be triple-exposed in such a way that the chances of any single photograph having a clear and definite subject is nearly impossible. Indeed, finding any edges on the negative itself during the developing process is a nearly impossible task. Typically the developing of such a roll of film is an exercise in automatic technique in and of itself, cutting the film by counting sprocket holes alone, with no regard for the images present on the negative. The results have a quality reminiscent of the transitory period in sleep when one dream suddenly becomes another.
See also
*
Creativity techniques
Creativity techniques are methods that encourage creative actions, whether in the arts or sciences. They focus on a variety of aspects of creativity, including techniques for idea generation and divergent thinking, methods of re-framing problems, ...
References
External links
"0000000 (outgraph)" by applenoire on FlickrExperimental GameplayWebsite has several rather surreal games, such as "On a rainy day."
Surrealist haikus.
Language Is A VirusSurrealist games: exquisite corpse, cut-up machines, word games and creative inspirations.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surrealist Techniques
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