#neo-dadaism

[disease]

"ESTATE" // 1963 ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG [oil and silkscreen ink on canvas | 95 3/4 x 69 3/4"]

[jareckiworld]

Boris Lurie (1924-2008)—Big NO Painting [oil paint and paper collage, on canvas, 1963]

[dusk82]

Loving the spirit behind Nam June Paik's works of the 60s and 70s. He saw hope and creativity in the dreary despair of growing surveillance with the widespread and mass advent of TV. That he was inspired by Zen Buddhism also brought another layer of deep resonance for me.

[inas-garten]

The older I get the less I appreciate sarcasm as a comedic device and the more I can’t understand why people don’t say what they mean. Why did sarcasm become such a staple in popular culture? Like, do you remember those Hot Topic t-shirts that said “I’m fluent in Sarcasm XD” as if it was something to be proudly stamped on your chest and not a confession that you’re habitually not a straight-forward communicator.

Besides the more important etiquette and communication issues with sarcasm, I just personally find it so banal and quotidian that it’s a piss-poor comedic device anyways.

Or maybe it’s just that the millennial/gen-z generations put more comedic value on things like absurdity and non sequiturs so things like 90’s/early 2000’s sarcasm (a la Chandler Bing) is démodé.

[dmcreativestudio]

Fluxus

Interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus is known for experimental contributions to different artistic media and disciplines and for generating new art forms. Many Fluxus artists share anti-commercial and anti-art sensibilities. Fluxus is sometimes described as "intermedia". Fluxus played an important role in the broadening of what is considered art. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts. Fluxus is fun.

[bukatra]

Fun Fact:

Gen Z is quickly becoming famous for its cynical gallowss humor and off the wall, absurdist  memes that make no sense. What a lot of Gen Z people do not realize is that this is not a necessarily new thing.

In the late 20s, 30s and early 40s, there wasa rise in the art community called Dadaism. These art peices were often ironic or poked fun at the great classic artwork of centuries previous. Also articles from that time speak of a huge surge of gallows humor. 

Many historians attribute this to the sudden worldwide surge of financial ruin in countries involved in World War 1. America was not the only country ot suffer an economic depression as the cost of war was fully felt. Many of the young adults then were promised a better life when the war ended, yet they quickly fell into disrepair as the effects of war rippled out.

Nowadays we have a similar issue. There is a whole generation that is growign up to adulthood with impossible to reach barriers, promised a better life that cannot be achieved. 

In conclusion: It is almost guarenteed that the people of the great depression had an almost identical sense of humor to Gen Z. They probably would have ‘liked’ and ‘retweeted’ every single meme and commented ‘big mood’ while they were at it.

[maosan]

Boxing paining by Ushio Shinohara (2009)

[dr-schnaz]

I propose a new branch of absurdist humor

Blatantly stripping meaning from common phrases. ie.,

“Eat the beans”

“When birds fly”

“Let the panini out of the bag”

“Cat got your elbow”

“Once in a slightly grayish/yellowish white moon”