THAR 281 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Scenic Design, Surrealism, Antonin Artaud
Document Summary
Symbolism: 1880-1910, rejected naturalism, symbolists saw theatre as a place to represent the inner states, to present the unpresentable, symbolism drama concentrates on moments of danger or crisis, used dim lighting, suggestive scenery, and sounds. Believed in energy, speed, and newness: futurist evenings, believed you could use art to speed up human perception, were in favor of the war. Thought it would sweep away the old to make way for the new. The reality of war, and of losing the war, destroyed futurism as a movement. Dada 1916: originated in switzerland, short lived. But influenced later avant-garde movements: were pacifists, wanted to relieve theatre of the duty of representing reality , anything that is nor, dada is; anything that is, dada is not . Leader: the subconscious mind in a dreamlike state represents the source of artistic truth, the mind of the artist should become like the mind of the dreamer, surprising relationships between familiar objects.