Project 2: Dada photomontage

Description

For this project, use Photoshop to create a Dada-style photomontage. As you can see in the examples linked below and in the reading you’ve been doing for class, “Dada” is a chaotic, playful, and eclectic style. I hope and expect that you will adapt this style to fit your own angle on the project. This is not an imitation exercise! However, you should work within the boundaries of a few general Dadaist rules.

rules of dada

• “‘Montage’ in German means ‘fitting’ or ‘assembly line,’ and ‘monteur’ means ‘mechanic,’ ‘engineer’ […]” (Ades 12).
• “[Photomontage] translates our aversion to playing the artist, and, thinking of ourselves as engineers we meant to construct, to assemble our works” (Hausmann qtd. in Ades 12)

• “For the Dadaists, the photographs or fragments of photographs combined began to be the primary structuring materials of the picture” (Ades 12).

• “the ideal use of photomontage is dialectical and that above all the idea behind it must be clear” (Ades 17).
• Dada is chaotic and spontaneous, but you need to know what question or concept you’re pursuing so that the photomontage is a directed piece of communication, different from a Pinterest board of loosely related images.

• “Hausmann realized immediately that he could make pictures composed exclusively of cut-up photographs, and his excitement [was] due to the idea not just of new technique, but of a technique in which the image would tell in a new way” (Ades 20).

Project components

The photomontage project has multiple components with separate deadlines. Submit each component to complete the project. Missing components will affect the whole project grade, even if the final image you submit is “A” work.

Use logical filenames for all of your project components.

Project narrative

Write approximately 500 words (two pages double-spaced) to document the process of completing this project and to analyze the choices you made in the final version. Discuss the idea/question you are trying to raise in your photomontage, why you chose to incorporate a particular image or word, the reasoning behind your revisions, or how your photomontage uses strategies like repetition, juxtaposition, color, scale, and spatial effects to communicate with the audience. Be accurate and concise in this narrative: use the terms from White Space and Foundations to show that you are developing a design vocabulary.

Requirements

• Use Photoshop for this project.
• Create your photomontage at a size of 8″x10″ with a resolution of 300 dpi, RGB color mode.
  • Consider printing your final composition when it’s due. There are self-serve, photo-printing stations at most drug stores and places like Target. It could be satisfying to see your final product in the flesh!
• The .psd file should have at least ten layers. All layers must be logically named (and grouped when appropriate).
• Your photomontage should use photographs in the Public Domain  , Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, or some other license for reuse and modification when possible. Although, legally, you can appropriate any image for artistic critique/parody and it is considered “fair use.” You may (but are not required to) add in your own original graphics. For example, you could:
  • Combine one of your own photographs with photos from Flickr Creative Commons.
  • Draw your own sketches or handwritten words on paper and scan those as .tiff files for use in Photoshop.
  • Scan newspaper or magazine clippings as .tiff files, combining these with a text graphic you made in Illustrator or Photoshop.
• At the end of the project narrative, you should include a list of active links to clearly identify what images came from what sources.
• The composition should incorporate the key characteristics of Dada photomontage.
• The composition should demonstrate good design skills, especially using tips from Darrel Rees:
  • the viewer has an entry point into the work (through a person’s face/head or something else).
  • elements work together to create a whole.
  • use meaningful juxtaposition and repetition to create visual interest and communicate a story or idea.

Examples & inspiration

Dada Typography: http://blog.typograffit.com/2011/06/dada-movement-typgraphy/

Hausmann on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lafuturiste/r-hausmann/

Dadaism: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm

“Top 10 Collage Artists: Hannah Höch to Man Ray”  http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/3318/Top_10_Collage_Artists_Hannah_H%C3%B6ch_to_Man_Ray

Tristan Tzara’s Dada Manifesto: http://www.ubu.com/papers/tzara_dada-manifesto.html