Generative Type Explorations

The Dada or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centers in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire. New York Dada began in 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris. Dadaist activities lasted until the mid-1920s. Artists such as Hannah Höch, Kur Schwitters and Hans Richter lead the movement through their works. The aesthetic message of the Dada movement is to reject the material methods of aesthetic tradition in place of new materialism, one that adopted an unconventional approach to materials. Assemblage became the technique of choice for its multiple layers of signification. It challenged defined artistic practices in craft, control, and intentionality whilst it rejected the use of traditional subject matter, materials, and classical composition. Most of the Dada movement was aimed at attacking bourgeois methods of communication as they effectively used images circulating in print media to re-organize meaning, transforming something recognizable into a new context. The supposed shattering of aesthetic values in their work was mostly aimed at rallying people into political and social action, making them aware of the latent structures which dominate the art culture at that time.