Part One (I had to divide this post into parts as it was too many characters...) Hi Folks! I am kind of kicking myself for not spending yesterday’s hour of writing doing the activity I’ve posted here below. So I thought since we don’t have time to do it ourselves during the final hours of STI, I can at least share it with you all in the hopes that you might a) use it in your classrooms when studying Surrealism (or simply want to generate some new materials in a fun, slightly silly fashion) or b) use it in your own lives as artists and thinkers. So here goes: My Introduction to Poetry students spent a week reading and writing Surrealist poetry. We talked a lot about these notions of accessing one’s unconscious, about using dreams for inspiration, about turning off that analytical desire to “sit down and write a poem,” and rather, to see what happens when chance plays a part in the process. Because it’s always more fun to do than simply to read about new ideas, I decided to create a series of writing games, all inspired by the Surrealist and Dada artists and writers. As Erica so eloquently taught us this afternoon, much of the work of both Surrealism and Dada dealt with using dreams, the unconscious, and chance. (I also like to think they simply liked to have fun and be absurd, but I might be projecting… or making crude assumptions. Either way, I certainly value having fun and being silly every now and then, and think it’s worth our while every now and then… Anyway, I’m on a tangent…) In order to aid the arrival of all of these things, the Surrealists and Dada members would hang out and play some games. These games are designed to generate material you otherwise would never and could never generate in your own reasonable and logical head. The logistics of this “Surrealist Word Party” (insert your own clever title here) are quite simple. I created stations around the room and divided my class into small groups (2 per group, though 3 might work if necessary). We rotated from station to station ever 15 minutes (this can vary depending on class time), so that each student had an opportunity to play each game. Before the games began, I explained and discussed each. (Here’s a great opportunity to throw in some art history). Then I let them loose and enjoyed listening to their laughter, watching students who were quite quiet all semester open up with their partners, and checking in over shoulders to discover some surprising language, ideas, and work. Below is a description of each station (I printed and posted this text at each station), as well as some extra notes of explanation.
1. Cut-Up Technique:
The first 750 words of the Surrealist Manifesto are cut up and placed in this bag. Each group member will pull out words, one at a time, creating new sentences as you go. After you have “written” a “complete” poem or paragraph, feel free to edit what chance has given you for sense, logic and syntax. See Tristan Tzara’s description of this writing technique below: To make a Dadaist poem: • Take a newspaper. • Take a pair of scissors. • Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem. • Cut out the article. • Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag. • Shake it gently. • Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag. • Copy conscientiously. • The poem will be like you. • And here you are a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar. Notes: - Have fun cutting up 750 individual words from this manifesto… I printed it out in a fairly large font to make my life easier. It’s worth it, though – many students came up with some really strange an startling work simply by pulling random words out of a bag. It might serve here too (if the age group is appropriate) to read and discuss the manifesto. Another idea could be to cut up another document that is fitting for the class.
“The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.” Supposedly, this sentence was created using this collaborative writing method and serves as the origin of the game’s title.
Create collaborative sentences by following the sentence structure below on strips of paper. Be sure to fold your paper after you have filled in your word so the next person can’t see it. When you’ve finished the last word, unfold to reveal your exquisite corpse. Combine a number of sentences as lines in a poem.
Notes: - It might help to have pre-folded strips of paper, and perhaps to even write out what part of speech belongs on each segment. The trick here is to cover up what is written so that the next student has no idea how to continue the sentence. While many turn out simply very silly and absurd (which is wonderful), some really do turn out to be quite interesting. I can imagine using this in collaboration with an art project in which students visually represent their exquisite corpse sentence.
3. Consequences
This is an old parlour game in a similar vein to the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse and Mad Libs. Each person takes a turn choosing a word or phrase for one of eleven questions, in this order. 1. Adjective for man 2. Man's name 3. Adjective for woman 4. Woman's name 5. Where they met 6. He wore 7. She wore 8. He said to her 9. She said to him 10. The consequence was… (a description of what happened after) 11. What the world said
The game is traditionally played by writing the words on paper and folding the paper to hide the previous words before passing it to the next player.
Then the story is read (for example):
Mediocre Joe met transparent Kim at the bowling alley. Joe wore a seafoam green leisure suit. Kim wore a sandwich board. Joe said to Kim “During the last storm, we had a little party in the mud.” Kim said “She wasn’t that into me.” As a consequence, the band got back together. And the world said “Somehow, I think I saw this coming.”
Notes: - I ended up folding computer paper into 11 strips (hamburger style… and like an accordion if that makes since…) This worked well for partners to write one sentence and then pass back and forth. Some groups generated 2 stories at a time which is nice and productive.
You know what to do … fill in the part of speech to complete the poem.
___________________ _______________ are being made adjective plural noun
To __________ things from us, ___________________ verb term of endearment
Some ________________ into the ___________________ verb adj. + noun
To _______________ their ____________________. verb plural noun
Others __________________ each other in ________________ rooms. verb adjective
The ______________ old __________________ adjective noun
Took us down to the ______________ cellar ______________ adjective adverb
To ____________ us a _________________ and a ____________________ verb noun noun
Before it _______________ to _____________ again past tense verb verb
With a sigh of ____________________. noun
Under the _______________, early-dawn _____________ adjective noun
The ______________ _______________ silent before us. noun verb
Everything on hold:
_________________ and water towers, plural noun
Clouds and wisps of ____________________________. adj + plural noun
We must be _________________, we told ourselves, adjective
See if the ___________________ will __________________ now animal animal sound
For the one who ________________ to her _________________ present tense verb noun
To feed them ____________________, food item
All but invisible, but for her ____________________. adjective +body part
Pigeons at Dawn Charles Simic
Extraordinary efforts are being made To hide things from us, my friend. Some stay up into the wee hours To search their souls. Others undress each other in darkened rooms.
The creaky old elevator Took us down to the icy cellar first To show us a mop and a bucket Before it deigned to ascend again With a sigh of exasperation.
Under the vast, early-dawn sky The city lay silent before us. Everything on hold: Rooftops and water towers, Clouds and wisps of white smoke.
We must be patient, we told ourselves, See if the pigeons will coo now For the one who comes to her window To feed them angel cake, All but invisible, but for her slender arm.
Notes: - I took the time to take out words here and there from this Simic poem. Feel free to use any other piece of literature for this game. You can easily find ready made MadLibs on the internet, but for my class, we had been reading some Simic before (he’s someone of a contemporary surrealist, which is a nice tie-in) Some groups simply filled in the blanks individually while others blindly called out parts of speech for their partner (like a traditional MadLib game). Both work well and produce some cool stuff. Be sure to keep the “real” poem a secret until class is over.
6. Visual Exquisite Corpse:
Fold a piece of paper 3 ways (horizontally), drawing the head, torso, and legs of a body, but concealing each portion from your partner.
Notes: -this is the visual version of the written exquisite corpse from earlier. My poets had a lot of fun switching gears and drawing. I imagine your art students will enjoy this game. I’ll say, too, that in my college printmaking class, our final project was an exquisite corpse portfolio. Each student created a figure on unified sized plates. Upon completing our figure, we then (painfully!!!) cut our plates into three equal parts. Finally, we exchanged our parts with peers, arranging new strange and absurd figures, and printed our exquisite corpses. That was a tangent but hopefully worth noting.
Part Four So that’s that. When class was over, my students were all pretty happy (it was exam week). Not only did they have fun, but I do believe many learned new things about their own writing process. I had students tell me they were surprised and pleased with the work they generated that day. And oh – I had a final discussion with my class to wrap things up. Mostly, we discussed which games they enjoyed the most and why, and vise-versa. However, I’m sure the discussion could go deeper if there was more time. I also had each group share one of their results with the class, which was loads of fun to listen to.
I hope these games are helpful to all of you! Again, I really wish I had had the foresight to do this lesson with all of you yesterday. But alas … next year. Feel free to contact me with any questions or clarification (carolannplaxco@gmail.com) Also, I have all of this text as a word document if that's helpful... Thanks!! Callie
Andre Breton's Surrealist Manefesto is in your notebooks!
ReplyDeletePart One (I had to divide this post into parts as it was too many characters...)
ReplyDeleteHi Folks!
I am kind of kicking myself for not spending yesterday’s hour of writing doing the activity I’ve posted here below. So I thought since we don’t have time to do it ourselves during the final hours of STI, I can at least share it with you all in the hopes that you might a) use it in your classrooms when studying Surrealism (or simply want to generate some new materials in a fun, slightly silly fashion) or b) use it in your own lives as artists and thinkers. So here goes:
My Introduction to Poetry students spent a week reading and writing Surrealist poetry. We talked a lot about these notions of accessing one’s unconscious, about using dreams for inspiration, about turning off that analytical desire to “sit down and write a poem,” and rather, to see what happens when chance plays a part in the process. Because it’s always more fun to do than simply to read about new ideas, I decided to create a series of writing games, all inspired by the Surrealist and Dada artists and writers.
As Erica so eloquently taught us this afternoon, much of the work of both Surrealism and Dada dealt with using dreams, the unconscious, and chance. (I also like to think they simply liked to have fun and be absurd, but I might be projecting… or making crude assumptions. Either way, I certainly value having fun and being silly every now and then, and think it’s worth our while every now and then… Anyway, I’m on a tangent…) In order to aid the arrival of all of these things, the Surrealists and Dada members would hang out and play some games. These games are designed to generate material you otherwise would never and could never generate in your own reasonable and logical head.
The logistics of this “Surrealist Word Party” (insert your own clever title here) are quite simple. I created stations around the room and divided my class into small groups (2 per group, though 3 might work if necessary). We rotated from station to station ever 15 minutes (this can vary depending on class time), so that each student had an opportunity to play each game. Before the games began, I explained and discussed each. (Here’s a great opportunity to throw in some art history). Then I let them loose and enjoyed listening to their laughter, watching students who were quite quiet all semester open up with their partners, and checking in over shoulders to discover some surprising language, ideas, and work.
Below is a description of each station (I printed and posted this text at each station), as well as some extra notes of explanation.
1. Cut-Up Technique:
The first 750 words of the Surrealist Manifesto are cut up and placed in this bag. Each group member will pull out words, one at a time, creating new sentences as you go. After you have “written” a “complete” poem or paragraph, feel free to edit what chance has given you for sense, logic and syntax.
See Tristan Tzara’s description of this writing technique below:
To make a Dadaist poem:
• Take a newspaper.
• Take a pair of scissors.
• Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem.
• Cut out the article.
• Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag.
• Shake it gently.
• Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag.
• Copy conscientiously.
• The poem will be like you.
• And here you are a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar.
Notes:
- Have fun cutting up 750 individual words from this manifesto… I printed it out in a fairly large font to make my life easier. It’s worth it, though – many students came up with some really strange an startling work simply by pulling random words out of a bag. It might serve here too (if the age group is appropriate) to read and discuss the manifesto. Another idea could be to cut up another document that is fitting for the class.
Part Two:
ReplyDelete2. Exquisite Corpse
“The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.” Supposedly, this sentence was created using this collaborative writing method and serves as the origin of the game’s title.
Create collaborative sentences by following the sentence structure below on strips of paper. Be sure to fold your paper after you have filled in your word so the next person can’t see it. When you’ve finished the last word, unfold to reveal your exquisite corpse. Combine a number of sentences as lines in a poem.
1. Article +Adjective
2. Noun
3. Verb
4. Article+Adjective
5. Noun
Notes:
- It might help to have pre-folded strips of paper, and perhaps to even write out what part of speech belongs on each segment. The trick here is to cover up what is written so that the next student has no idea how to continue the sentence. While many turn out simply very silly and absurd (which is wonderful), some really do turn out to be quite interesting. I can imagine using this in collaboration with an art project in which students visually represent their exquisite corpse sentence.
3. Consequences
This is an old parlour game in a similar vein to the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse and Mad Libs.
Each person takes a turn choosing a word or phrase for one of eleven questions, in this order.
1. Adjective for man
2. Man's name
3. Adjective for woman
4. Woman's name
5. Where they met
6. He wore
7. She wore
8. He said to her
9. She said to him
10. The consequence was… (a description of what happened after)
11. What the world said
The game is traditionally played by writing the words on paper and folding the paper to hide the previous words before passing it to the next player.
Then the story is read (for example):
Mediocre Joe met transparent Kim at the bowling alley.
Joe wore a seafoam green leisure suit. Kim wore a sandwich board. Joe said to Kim “During the last storm, we had a little party in the mud.” Kim said “She wasn’t that into me.” As a consequence, the band got back together. And the world said “Somehow, I think I saw this coming.”
Notes:
- I ended up folding computer paper into 11 strips (hamburger style… and like an accordion if that makes since…) This worked well for partners to write one sentence and then pass back and forth. Some groups generated 2 stories at a time which is nice and productive.
Part Three:
ReplyDelete4. MadLibs
You know what to do … fill in the part of speech to complete the poem.
___________________ _______________ are being made
adjective plural noun
To __________ things from us, ___________________
verb term of endearment
Some ________________ into the ___________________
verb adj. + noun
To _______________ their ____________________.
verb plural noun
Others __________________ each other in ________________ rooms.
verb adjective
The ______________ old __________________
adjective noun
Took us down to the ______________ cellar ______________
adjective adverb
To ____________ us a _________________ and a ____________________
verb noun noun
Before it _______________ to _____________ again
past tense verb verb
With a sigh of ____________________.
noun
Under the _______________, early-dawn _____________
adjective noun
The ______________ _______________ silent before us.
noun verb
Everything on hold:
_________________ and water towers,
plural noun
Clouds and wisps of ____________________________.
adj + plural noun
We must be _________________, we told ourselves,
adjective
See if the ___________________ will __________________ now
animal animal sound
For the one who ________________ to her _________________
present tense verb noun
To feed them ____________________,
food item
All but invisible, but for her ____________________.
adjective +body part
Pigeons at Dawn
Charles Simic
Extraordinary efforts are being made
To hide things from us, my friend.
Some stay up into the wee hours
To search their souls.
Others undress each other in darkened rooms.
The creaky old elevator
Took us down to the icy cellar first
To show us a mop and a bucket
Before it deigned to ascend again
With a sigh of exasperation.
Under the vast, early-dawn sky
The city lay silent before us.
Everything on hold:
Rooftops and water towers,
Clouds and wisps of white smoke.
We must be patient, we told ourselves,
See if the pigeons will coo now
For the one who comes to her window
To feed them angel cake,
All but invisible, but for her slender arm.
Notes:
- I took the time to take out words here and there from this Simic poem. Feel free to use any other piece of literature for this game. You can easily find ready made MadLibs on the internet, but for my class, we had been reading some Simic before (he’s someone of a contemporary surrealist, which is a nice tie-in) Some groups simply filled in the blanks individually while others blindly called out parts of speech for their partner (like a traditional MadLib game). Both work well and produce some cool stuff. Be sure to keep the “real” poem a secret until class is over.
6. Visual Exquisite Corpse:
Fold a piece of paper 3 ways (horizontally), drawing the head, torso, and legs of a body, but concealing each portion from your partner.
Notes:
-this is the visual version of the written exquisite corpse from earlier. My poets had a lot of fun switching gears and drawing. I imagine your art students will enjoy this game. I’ll say, too, that in my college printmaking class, our final project was an exquisite corpse portfolio. Each student created a figure on unified sized plates. Upon completing our figure, we then (painfully!!!) cut our plates into three equal parts. Finally, we exchanged our parts with peers, arranging new strange and absurd figures, and printed our exquisite corpses. That was a tangent but hopefully worth noting.
Part Four
ReplyDeleteSo that’s that. When class was over, my students were all pretty happy (it was exam week). Not only did they have fun, but I do believe many learned new things about their own writing process. I had students tell me they were surprised and pleased with the work they generated that day. And oh – I had a final discussion with my class to wrap things up. Mostly, we discussed which games they enjoyed the most and why, and vise-versa. However, I’m sure the discussion could go deeper if there was more time. I also had each group share one of their results with the class, which was loads of fun to listen to.
I hope these games are helpful to all of you! Again, I really wish I had had the foresight to do this lesson with all of you yesterday. But alas … next year.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or clarification (carolannplaxco@gmail.com) Also, I have all of this text as a word document if that's helpful...
Thanks!!
Callie