Surrealism
“A 20th-century avant-garde
movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential
of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.”
Why discuss surrealism in relation to visual design/communication?
‘As commercial art,
surrealism was a benign tool not a revolutionary language’
- Stephen Heller in stylepedia (2006)
Alphabet by Jindřich Heisler, 1952
For this work that Jindřich Heisler I really like what she has
created. At college I did a big photography project on Surrealism, so I have a
good understanding on surreal art and what to expect. One thing that I had
never done before was surreal typography. I have a high interest in typography.
So from this I would like to look into surreal art and then try and complete a
typography style that looks similar or even different to her work but still has
the same idea behind it. So for an independent task I am going to research surrealism
and look at surreal typography and see what I can come up with for myself.
Andre Masson, automatic drawing
Looking at this piece of work by Andre Masson I really like
the way that it looks. Not because it’s a good piece of work, yes it is good,
but I like the way that it makes the reader look at this more closely because it
looks like a mess and you try to identify key features of this piece. I have nicer
seen a piece of work like this before and this has really caught my eye. I
think that I might try and see if I can do something similar to this and see if
it has the same effect as his work.
‘Painting is not for me neither decorative amusement, or the
plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery,
revelation.’
-Max Ernst
Walt Disney – Dumbo (1942)
In the 1942 film Dumbo by Walt Disney it has surreal
animation in the film that you can see above. Which is a screenshot of the
film. With a link to the part of the film. The film part where all the pink
elephants are playing the trumpet is quite surreal in the way that its actually
not that nice to watch. I think that it’s weird in a way. But what I am saying
is that it’s not just in images/paintings that you see surrealism but you also
see it in films and animations.
‘What i most enjoy contemplating about a dream is everything
that sinks back below the surface in a waking state, everything I have
forgotten about my activities in the course of the preceding day, dark foliage,
stupid branches. In “reality,” likewise, I prefer to fall. What is worth noting
is that nothing allows us to presuppose a greater dissipation of the elements
of which the dream is constituted.’
- Andre Breton
For an uncanny effect we can distinguish:
Something strange about something;
Something familiar from something strange;
Something strange added to something familiar.
The uncanny is more disturbing than surprising.
Uncanny = unhomely (‘unheimlich’).
What the
Uncanny valley scale is, is that it shows the realistic scale of characters in
films so the Simpsons. The Simpsons are quite low on the scale because they do
not look like humans. Yes, they have human features but they are not alike
humans. Whereas, you have the Polar Express and Cubo Girl. These are freaky in
a way that they are so much like human. They have all the features that humans
have. Next after these is a human. So what this scale shows is how alike
characters of films are compared to humans.