Via Seth, we get this highly entertaining morsel.
Which got me thinking about Dada. You remember Dada? (No, "I Remember Mama".) [Oops, sorry.] Dadaism was an artistic movement that created deeply nonsensical works; nonsensical in that they defied conventional interpretation. Dada's one rule, "never follow any rules."
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Very webby. And, dadaists thrived on "found objects." Don't we all.
Looked at through prevailing frames, dadaist works were impenetrable. You always hear the voice of the crowd (what Heidegger called, "they") asking, "Why is that art?"
Why, indeed?
There's something compelling about this kind of irrational exuberance. The sheer nonsensical joyousness of this video (or Duchamp's urinal) will bring a smile to the faces of all but the most curmudeonly of us.
But why?
I think it's because of the fundmentally irrational nature of our fate. When you can be peacefully lying on a beach one moment and be swept away by an unimaginably powerful wall of water the next, things obviously make no sense. When you define yourself as a nation of fairness and justice, and then see what was perpetrated in the name of those values, things obviously make no sense. When people believe that anything is fair game for showing how "hip" (hop) you are, things obviously make no sense.
So then, when you something that really makes no sense, it's cathartic. And we obviously need those kinds of catharses today. So, thanks to all responsible for some serious Sunday laughter.
Oh yeah, and, like the Numanuma piece, the word "dada" is reputed to be of Romanian origin. Just the kind of nonsensical dadaist synchronicity we love.
[Update]: My goodness, how could I write about dada and the web and leave out Rageboy? Look at this post and find the dadaist reference!
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