Month: January 2017

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“We are Determined to Create a Revolution.”

Surrealism is not a new means of expression, nor a simpler one, nor even a metaphysic of poetry. It is a means of total liberation of the mind and of everything resembling it. 

  —Andre Breton, Surrealist tract, 1925

 

Is there a way out?
          (searching for) a lost oar

Question Mark Harris, Answer Michelle Tennison (2016)

 

When am I no longer me?
          The light fades to this point, the snakes come out

Question Harry Hudson, Answer Michelle Tennison (2004)

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Automatic Writing and Games of Chance

Playful procedures and systematic stratagems [provide] keys to unlock the door to the unconscious and to release the visual and verbal poetry of collective creativity.

                                      — Mel Gooding, Intro to Surrealist Games, 1993

 

Through its inherent time-lapse and random nature, The Question and Answer Game creates an opening, a pregnant pause between question and answer. This pause, and the element of chance, are the keys to its inventiveness. Previously unrecognized thoughts are given an opportunity to jump in.