Dada Data: Contemporary Art Practice in the Era of Post-Truth Politics

Description

What is the relevance of Dada and its artistic strategies in our current moment, one marked by post-truth politics, information floods and big data? How can contemporary art highlight the neglected nuances of cultural representation in the present day? While it may feel like we are living in a period of anomaly with the rise of the alt-right, this book shows how the Dada movement’s artistic response to the aggressive nationalism and fascism of its time offers a fruitful analogy to our contemporary era. Dada’s counter-cultural strategies, such as the distortion of reality and attacks on elites and rationality, have long been endorsed by artistic avantgardes and subcultures. Dada Data details how modern-day movements have appropriated such tactics in their ways of addressing the public both on- and offline. Bringing together contributions from interdisciplinary scholars, curators and artists working in global contexts that explore an array of artistic modes of persuasion and resistance, the book demonstrates how contemporary art can bring out neglected nuances of our post-truth moment. In linking the Dada movement’s counter-cultural activities to modern phenomena such as post-internet art, information floods and big data mining, the book collates original propaganda with diverse artwork from such figures as Hannah Höch, Paula Rego, Tschabalala Self, Sheida Soleimani and South African artists donna Kukama and Kemang Wa Lehulere. In doing so, Dada Data brings together a rich scrapbook of Dada resources and perspectives that are highly relevant to present-day political concerns. With artistic contributions by IOCOSE, donna Kukama, Kemang Wa Lehulere and montage mädels. The fragmentation of imagery and the playful engagement with truth characteristic of Dada invites parallels with the aesthetic strategies appropriated by populist politicians and the alt-right in the era of so-called ‘post-truth politics’. This is surprising since the adaptation of the counter-cultural strategies of the Dada movement were for a long time ascribed to left-wing subcultures. If populist politicians persuade the masses by tailored data strategies and simplified conceptions of reality, how can art highlight the neglected nuances of the so-called ‘post-truth’ era? Dada’s artistic response to the aggression, nationalism, white supremacist thinking and rising fascism defining its time offers the fruitful backdrop which this edited volume takes as its point of departure. The book will shed new light on the engagement with tactics of Dada in recent cultural and artistic representations. If Dada strategies are now used by both the left and the alt-right, how does genuine artistic resistance need to be re-thought in the era of post-truth? Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS NOTE ON COVER DESIGN – MONTAGE MÄDELS ILLUSTRATIONS NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Introduction: From Dada Tricks to Post-Truth Politics Dada Dada and conceptions of (post-)truth From Dada tricks to data-driven politics Dada and the alt-right The structure of this book The chapters PART ONE From Dada to Data CHAPTER ONE Dadadatadada: From Dada to Data and Back Again Data poems Dada data hacks Big Dada data politics Mean memes Dada data tactics Conclusion CHAPTER TWO Clouds, Critique & Contradiction: Programming Dissent in Dada and Data Art Dada: The sound of words; or, mind the gap! Big data and the Angelus Novus ; or, the end of history, again? The datalogical turn: Recipes, instructions, procedures; or, tips and tricks for a dynamite(d) data soufflé. (Aka the end. But also the beginning) CHAPTER THREE The Legacy of the Berlin Dada Media Hoaxes in Contemporary Parafictive Acts Political context and social turns Johannes Baader and the Berlin Dada media hoaxes Contemporary acts Conclusion montage mädels Our Collective Practice: A Visual Essay PART TWO Global Dada CHAPTER FOUR Sheida Soleimani, Cyborg: Photomontage in an Expanding Network CHAPTER FIVE Black Dada Data: Collage as a Tool of Resistance against White Supremacy Thinking in the Digital Age ‘Post-truth’ as sign for the unwillingness to abandon white privilege Collage strategies and political resistance Black collage Black Dada Black Dada Data Conclusion CHAPTER SIX Dada’s African South Dada’s revolt Dada South? Complacency and resistance The Body in performance From the street to online activism Post- truth – Dada irrationality in the age of data Conclusion CHAPTER SEVEN Paula Rego: A Dada Attitude against Authority in the Post-War Period Vomiting Salazar In a black and white city of great inertia A geography of fear Conclusion PART THREE Big Dada Data CHAPTER EIGHT Big Dada, Big Data: Schwitters’s Merzbau, the Private and the Trash Thriving on trash Private grottos Exposure and the inner life Networked grottos Obsessive archival, collective trash: Data and trash Temporally flat, materially deep Conclusion CHAPTER NINE Identity, Ecology and the Arts in the Age of Big Data Mining Data love Data mining business Social engineers without a cause Cunning of reason CHAPTER TEN The Digital Revolution as Counter-Revolution Is technology anything other than a weapon? The machine as means to counter the powers of the social The social as obsolete under the digital Counter-revolution: The early modern period as antecedent Kemang Wa Lehulere Dog of Orion PART FOUR Dada x Alt-Right. Faking the Truth CHAPTER ELEVEN Down the Rabbit Hole of the Alt-Right Complex: Artists Exploring Far-Right Online Culture CHAPTER TWELVE Fashwave: The Alt-Right’s Aestheticization of Politics and Violence Alt-right fascism Analysing Fashwave’s ‘Retro-Futurism’ Visual analysis 1: ‘Embrace tradition’ Visual analysis 2: The Christchurch mosque shooter and ‘The Great Replacement’ Conclusion: Replicate to accelerate CHAPTER THIRTEEN Post-Internet Art and the Alt-Right Visual Culture IOCOSE Dadasourcing PART FIVE Dada Data Tactics CHAPTER FOURTEEN Pixel Pirates: Theft as Strategy in the Art of Joan Ross and Soda Jerk CHAPTER FIFTEEN Precarious Data Aesthetics: An Exploration of Tactics, Tricksters and Idiocy in Data Dadaist tactics Digital Dada Precarious aesthetics in data CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Multiple Narratives of Post-Truth Politics, Told Through Pictures Context – a sea of images compete for our attention Images prioritizing impact over veracity Images, digital data breach and (in)justice New era of the collective coherence of the far-right The response of artists and activists Diversity, equality and digital (in)justice Visually led – alternative models of online communities New models, supported by appropriate funding mechanisms INDEX