I found this lecture very useful as it gave me an insight into what I can expect for my third year at university. I also learned a lot about the surrealist movement.

Surrealism is a 20th century movement in art and literature that centres around theory of the unconscious mind and dream like images.

The Unconscious Mind

“The preconscious mind contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can be brought to consciousness… The preconscious is like a mental waiting room, in which thoughts remain until they succeed in attracting the eye of the conscious” (Freud, 1924, p.306)

Styles of Surrealism

Automatism: Is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses control of the making process, allowing the unconscious to do the work.

Collage: Collage was coined in the 20th century by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Collage allowed artists to be able to experiment with mixed medias, utilising every day items ranging from newspapers to war time propaganda. Hannah Höch was a pivotal artist from Germany. the work ‘Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife’ stands as a clear statement on sexism and racism in Germany at the time of the war through newspaper clippings.

Cubomania: Cubomania is a derivative of collage in which an image is cut into shapes and is restored with no regard to the original placement of the squares. Cubomania allows the artist to have freedom to express in restrictive situations.

Decalcomania: Decalcomania is based upon a symmetric technique where a liquid based medium is pressed between a canvas to create a mirrored image. This method was common in Cornelia Parker’s work in 1996 entitled Pornographic Drawing.

Fumage: Fumage is a technique popularised by Wolfgang Paalen. It involved impressions made by smoke from a candle on paper or canvas.

Outagraphy: Is the method of using a photo but cutting out the most focal part of the image and adjusting the section to produce a new image.

Exquisite Corpse: This technique involves someone starting a drawing or sentence, folding it over and passing it on to the next person.

Reface: Is a surreal video mash-up that composes endless combinations of faces. Reface uses face tracking techniques to allow automatic alignment and segmentation of faces. As a result, visitors to the project can move around freely in front of the display.