Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Dada: Keep one reading path; rotate and sever the rest
- Type
- Set in Dada's manner (Collide weights, directions and cases in one plane), and let Photomontage's lettering (Cut headlines from existing print and paste them at unmatched sizes) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Dada's material (Letterpress black, red, off-white; bind the accidents with repetition); bring in exactly one thing from Photomontage (Magazine and newspaper cuttings, paste, rephotography, seams kept or hidden).
- Colour
- Build on #efe6d0, #d7362f, #161513 and admit one accent from #e6dfd0, #b83b2f, #1d1b19.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Dada Not decorative messiness. Decide which authority or custom you are objecting to.
- Photomontage Copying only the cutting and pasting leaves fragments side by side with no collision, and the criticism the method existed for never lands.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Dada (style, 1916–1920s) and their accent from Photomontage (technique, 1910s–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Dada exists for: cultural events and statements that doubt common sense, or making voice, noise and collision come before meaning. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Dada - Rotated type - Fragments of sound - Collisions of scale - Unbalanced margins Composition: Keep one reading path; rotate and sever the rest. Type and lettering: Collide weights, directions and cases in one plane. ## Accent comes from Photomontage, used sparingly - Cut-out photographs - Mixed scales - Visible seams - Reused print matter Let one material quality come from it: Magazine and newspaper cuttings, paste, rephotography, seams kept or hidden. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #efe6d0, carry the structure in #d7362f and #161513, and let a single accent come from #b83b2f. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, play, exhilaration. ## What goes wrong - Dada: Not decorative messiness. Decide which authority or custom you are objecting to. - Photomontage: Copying only the cutting and pasting leaves fragments side by side with no collision, and the criticism the method existed for never lands. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Dada 1916–1920s / Style / Avant-garde
Deliberately dislocates meaning and order, making authority itself the material of the joke.
- Photomontage 1910s– / Technique / Photographic Techniques
Cuts and rejoins photographic fragments, assembling relations and critical meanings that never existed in the original reality.
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