From Dada to Digital Response

March 30th, 2015




Timothy Druckery's article From Dada to Digital Montage in the Twentieth Century highlights the evolution of concept in photography from its inception as a practice for scientific research into art. Druckery's article also comments on how photography has been able to capture the social scenes from around the world but also being able to subvert certain themes seen in society. Druckery questions how photography fits in with art and more so what digital photography does as an art medium/practice. Druckery writes, "Montage establishes the image as either dialectal or discursive, a collision of significations" (5). What this means to me is that montage is a selection of images that are juxtaposed with one another in order to visually make a point. Druckery also comments, "Images carry with them iconic references...that have to do with the assemblage of ideas, that build toward a sense of totality (5). Montage in art has been able to subvert or question the status quo. A popular type of art that emerged from this, as Druckery writes, is dadaism. Dadaism is dialectical  uses montage to "deconstruct" the "image-order of bourgeois culture" (5). From montage, surrealism art also emerged as an allegorical art and instead of using art to comment on the status quo, art is used in surrealism to bring out abstract ideas and within this abstraction using symbolism to display themes that came from one's subconscious. Druckery goes on to write about more emergences of art such as Pop Art and then states how dadaism, surrealism, pop art and societal culture have all been relevant with photography. Druckery states, "The limit of photography, paralleling the limits of language, indicate that formal and self-reflexive models of expression no longer serve the symbolic imperatives of this culture" (6). Druckery attribution to digital photography as a new language sites this as a cultural transformation not only in the world of art but also in terms of communication with the rest of the world. Digital photography within the realm of montage serves to confront existing issues that were not only confronted in the past but also issues that are now readily present and forthcoming issues that are posed by the practices in a culture that is heavily dependent on technology.

My original experience with montage art has mostly come from watching many films and tv shows that use montages. One example of this that I am quite fond of is the popular cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? that premiered in 1969.

http://cdn3.gurl.com/wp-content/gallery/scooby-doo-moments/scooby-doo-doors-chase-scene.jpg