Go to: Dada + Surrealism An art movement can be defined as a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time. Dada was an anti-art movement that sought to subvert the function of the arts in an increasingly commercial and militaristic society. Dada develops in numerous cities including Zurich, Berlin, Paris, and New York in the context WWI. Influenced by ideas of psychoanalysis such as the unconscious, artists built on the irrational art of Dada to explore the dark world of desire freed from rules created to protect us from our inner ourselves. Read: Surrealism, an introduction What do you believe these artists were attempting to do? Do not forget they had just been through World War One where 16 million people died. What do you think of automatism? What were these artists trying to explore in art, poetry writing and other crafts? Can art bring about social and/or political change? In what way? Consider the map discussed at the very beginning. View and comment: On the images below the article. Watch: Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory What do you think Dali was trying to say? Is time regimented or flowing? Explain your rationale. What object or situation have you experienced that are irrational or surreal?