In light of all this discussion about form and structures innateness within things that exist it is interesting how easy it is to create something as a human being. As human beings we have such an ingenuity with which to create forms of infinite variety, basic natural forms (like our bodily forms) and the natural forms we create. I am espiecially interested in the forms that we create out of experiment, play, or individual or direct responses to specific needs.
It is interesting that the minute a sentence is uttered it can begin to acquire multitudes of meanings both for the speaker or for those who hear it. Not only can a proposition uttered with some literal intent carry many meanings but even a phrase created out of a deliberate attempt at obsurdity acquires meaning and exhibites form an structure as soon as it is uttered. Perhaps this even occurs as the phrase is being uttered, this aquisition of structure acting as a physical transition between the mental form (what we where referring to as a "special" sort of form) and the physical form (its spoken version, which not only exhibits grammatical and semantic structures but involves physical displacements of air molecules and muscular and nervous actions on the part of both sender and reciever).
Pavla is speaking about Dada here to me. Dada as impetous as a reaction to the senselessness of the war, and as senselessness itself. Yet there is no senselessness is there? Not once some form is put forth. The reseach value of Surrealism as expressed by its participants (and espiecially the early participants such as Desnos and Ernst) seems to circulate around this point. Juxtapostion, association, reaction conscious and unconscious - forms and minds interact through thier structures and processes and meaning arises, sometimes seemingly out of nothing.
I would like to give an example of one such (as Breton paraphrases Lautremont) "chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table," but rather than utilize the tired and perhaps at this point overly associative heritage of the surrealists or other bastard children of dada I would prefer to use an example close at hand. Take these two Butthole Surfers records "Rembrant Pussyhorse," "Locust Abortion Technition," and "Independant Worm Saloon." I mean each of those phrases consists of words that wouldn't really suggest the others. They could have easily been chosen at random or selected from lists of three word juxtapostions assembled by opening the dictionary at random. Yet each of them (I am reading them one at a time, slowly) suggest many images, and come with whole imaginary stuctures attached and carry moods, atmospheres, emotional overtones, as such meanings.
I am picturing an Independant Worm Saloon as an animated worm dressed as a cowboy with a hat and leather holsters standing at a wooden bar against a yellow background. The bar is in Texas and there is going to be a Libertarian party meeting but the Worm we are watching wants to get drunk first. He is drinking a tequila with a worm in it.
It is interesting that the minute a sentence is uttered it can begin to acquire multitudes of meanings both for the speaker or for those who hear it. Not only can a proposition uttered with some literal intent carry many meanings but even a phrase created out of a deliberate attempt at obsurdity acquires meaning and exhibites form an structure as soon as it is uttered. Perhaps this even occurs as the phrase is being uttered, this aquisition of structure acting as a physical transition between the mental form (what we where referring to as a "special" sort of form) and the physical form (its spoken version, which not only exhibits grammatical and semantic structures but involves physical displacements of air molecules and muscular and nervous actions on the part of both sender and reciever).
Pavla is speaking about Dada here to me. Dada as impetous as a reaction to the senselessness of the war, and as senselessness itself. Yet there is no senselessness is there? Not once some form is put forth. The reseach value of Surrealism as expressed by its participants (and espiecially the early participants such as Desnos and Ernst) seems to circulate around this point. Juxtapostion, association, reaction conscious and unconscious - forms and minds interact through thier structures and processes and meaning arises, sometimes seemingly out of nothing.
I would like to give an example of one such (as Breton paraphrases Lautremont) "chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table," but rather than utilize the tired and perhaps at this point overly associative heritage of the surrealists or other bastard children of dada I would prefer to use an example close at hand. Take these two Butthole Surfers records "Rembrant Pussyhorse," "Locust Abortion Technition," and "Independant Worm Saloon." I mean each of those phrases consists of words that wouldn't really suggest the others. They could have easily been chosen at random or selected from lists of three word juxtapostions assembled by opening the dictionary at random. Yet each of them (I am reading them one at a time, slowly) suggest many images, and come with whole imaginary stuctures attached and carry moods, atmospheres, emotional overtones, as such meanings.
I am picturing an Independant Worm Saloon as an animated worm dressed as a cowboy with a hat and leather holsters standing at a wooden bar against a yellow background. The bar is in Texas and there is going to be a Libertarian party meeting but the Worm we are watching wants to get drunk first. He is drinking a tequila with a worm in it.