Dada () or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchist in nature.

Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals; passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown music movements, and groups including surrealism, Nouveau réalisme, pop art, Fluxus and punk rock.

Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism. —Marc Lowenthal, translator's introduction to Francis Picabia's ''I Am a Beautiful Monster: Poetry, Prose, And Provocation''

Overview

Dada was an informal international movement, with participants in Europe and North America. The beginnings of Dada correspond to the outbreak of World War I. For many participants, the movement was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests, which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war, and against the cultural and intellectual conformity—in art and more broadly in society—that corresponded to the war. Many Dadaists believed that the 'reason' and 'logic' of bourgeois capitalist society had led people into war. They expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression that appeared to reject logic and embrace chaos and irrationality. For example, George Grosz later recalled that his Dadaist art was intended as a protest "against this world of mutual destruction."

According to its proponents, Dada was not art, it was "anti-art". Everything for which art stood, Dada represented the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. Through their rejection of traditional culture and aesthetics, the Dadaists hoped to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics.

As Hugo Ball expressed it, "For us, art is not an end in itself ... but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in."

A reviewer from the ''American Art News'' stated at the time that "Dada philosophy is the sickest, most paralyzing and most destructive thing that has ever originated from the brain of man." Art historians have described Dada as being, in large part, a "reaction to what many of these artists saw as nothing more than an insane spectacle of collective homicide."

Years later, Dada artists described the movement as "a phenomenon bursting forth in the midst of the postwar economic and moral crisis, a savior, a monster, which would lay waste to everything in its path. [It was] a systematic work of destruction and demoralization... In the end it became nothing but an act of sacrilege."

History

Zurich

In 1916, Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Sophie Täuber, and Hans Richter, along with others, discussed art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire expressing their disgust with the war and the interests that inspired it.

Some sources state that Dada coalesced on October 6 at the Cabaret Voltaire. Other sources state that Dada did not originate fully in a Zurich literary salon but grew out of an already vibrant artistic tradition in Eastern Europe, particularly Romania, that transposed to Switzerland when a group of Jewish modernist artists (Tzara, Marcel & Iuliu Iancu, Arthur Segal, and others) settled in Zurich. In the years prior to World War I similar art had already risen in Bucharest and other Eastern European cities; it is likely that DADA's catalytic was the arrival at Zurich of artists like Tzara and Janco.

Having left Germany and Romania during World War I, the artists found themselves in Switzerland, a country recognized for its neutrality. Inside this space of political neutrality they decided to use abstraction to fight against the social, political, and cultural ideas of that time. The dadaists believed those ideas to be a byproduct of bourgeois society, a society so apathetic it would rather fight a war against itself than challenge the ''status quo''.

Marcel Janco recalled, :''We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the ''tabula rasa''. At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order.''

The Cabaret closed its doors in early July and then at the first public soiree at Waag Hall on July 14, 1916, Ball recited the first manifesto. In 1917, Tzara wrote a second Dada manifesto considered one of the most important Dada writings, which was published in 1918. Other manifestos followed.

A single issue of the magazine ''Cabaret Voltaire'' was the first publication to come out of the movement.

After the cabaret closed down, activities moved to a new gallery and Hugo Ball left for Bern. Tzara began a relentless campaign to spread Dada ideas. He bombarded French and Italian artists and writers with letters, and soon emerged as the Dada leader and master strategist. The Cabaret Voltaire re-opened, and is still in the same place at the Spiegelgasse 1 in the Niederdorf.

Zurich Dada, with Tzara at the helm, published the art and literature review ''Dada'' beginning in July 1917, with five editions from Zurich and the final two from Paris.

When World War I ended in 1918, most of the Zurich Dadaists returned to their home countries, and some began Dada activities in other cities.

Berlin

The groups in Germany were not as strongly anti-art as other groups. Their activity and art was more political and social, with corrosive manifestos and propaganda, satire, public demonstrations and overt political activities. It has been suggested that this is at least partially due to Berlin's proximity to the front, and that for an opposite effect, New York's geographic distance from the war spawned its more theoretically-driven, less political nature.

In February 1918, Huelsenbeck gave his first Dada speech in Berlin, and produced a Dada manifesto later in the year. Hannah Höch and George Grosz used Dada to express post-World War I communist sympathies. Grosz, together with John Heartfield, developed the technique of photomontage during this period. The artists published a series of short-lived political magazines, and held the ''First International Dada Fair'', 'the greatest project yet conceived by the Berlin Dadaists', in the summer of 1920. As well as the main members of Berlin Dada, Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, Höch, Johannes Baader, Huelsenbeck and Heartfield, the exhibition also included work by Otto Dix, Francis Picabia, Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Rudolf Schlichter, Johannes Baargeld and others.

The Berlin group published periodicals such as ''Club Dada'', ''Der Dada'', ''Everyman His Own Football'', and ''Dada Almanach''.

Cologne

In Cologne, Ernst, Baargeld, and Arp launched a controversial Dada exhibition in 1920 which focused on nonsense and anti-bourgeois sentiments. Cologne's Early Spring Exhibition was set up in a pub, and required that participants walk past urinals while being read lewd poetry by a woman in a communion dress. The police closed the exhibition on grounds of obscenity, but it was re-opened when the charges were dropped.

New York

Like Zurich, New York City was a refuge for writers and artists from World War I. Soon after arriving from France in 1915, Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia met American artist Man Ray. By 1916 the three of them became the center of radical anti-art activities in the United States. American Beatrice Wood, who had been studying in France, soon joined them, along with Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Arthur Cravan, fleeing conscription in France, was also present for a time. Much of their activity centered in Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, 291, and the home of Walter and Louise Arensberg.

The New Yorkers, though not particularly organized, called their activities ''Dada,'' but they did not issue manifestos. They issued challenges to art and culture through publications such as ''The Blind Man'', ''Rongwrong'', and ''New York Dada'' in which they criticized the traditionalist basis for ''museum'' art. New York Dada lacked the disillusionment of European Dada and was instead driven by a sense of irony and humor. In his book ''Adventures in the arts: informal chapters on painters, vaudeville and poets'' Marsden Hartley included an essay on "The Importance of Being 'Dada'".

During this time Duchamp began exhibiting "readymades" (found objects) such as a bottle rack, and got involved with the Society of Independent Artists. In 1917 he submitted the now famous ''Fountain'', a urinal signed R. Mutt, to the Society of Independent Artists show only to have the piece rejected. First an object of scorn within the arts community, the ''Fountain'' has since become almost canonized by some. The committee presiding over Britain's prestigious Turner Prize in 2004, for example, called it "the most influential work of modern art." In an attempt to "pay homage to the spirit of Dada" a performance artist named Pierre Pinoncelli made a crack in The Fountain with a hammer in January 2006; he also urinated on it in 1993.

Picabia's travels tied New York, Zurich and Paris groups together during the Dadaist period. For seven years he also published the Dada periodical ''391'' in Barcelona, New York City, Zurich, and Paris from 1917 through 1924.

By 1921, most of the original players moved to Paris where Dada experienced its last major incarnation (see Neo-Dada for later activity).

Paris

The French avant-garde kept abreast of Dada activities in Zurich with regular communications from Tristan Tzara (whose pseudonym means "sad in country," a name chosen to protest the treatment of Jews in his native Romania), who exchanged letters, poems, and magazines with Guillaume Apollinaire, André Breton, Max Jacob, Clément Pansaers, and other French writers, critics and artists.

Paris had arguably been the classical music capital of the world since the advent of musical Impressionism in the late 19th century. One of its practitioners, Erik Satie, collaborated with Picasso and Cocteau in a mad, scandalous ballet called ''Parade''. First performed by the Ballets Russes in 1917, it succeeded in creating a scandal but in a different way than Stravinsky's ''Le Sacre du Printemps'' had done almost five years earlier. This was a ballet that was clearly parodying itself, something traditional ballet patrons would obviously have serious issues with.

Dada in Paris surged in 1920 when many of the originators converged there. Inspired by Tzara, Paris Dada soon issued manifestos, organized demonstrations, staged performances and produced a number of journals (the final two editions of ''Dada'', ''Le Cannibale'', and ''Littérature'' featured Dada in several editions.)

The first introduction of Dada artwork to the Parisian public was at the Salon des Indépendants in 1921. Jean Crotti exhibited works associated with Dada including a work entitled, ''Explicatif'' bearing the word ''Tabu''. In the same year Tzara staged his Dadaist play ''The Gas Heart'' to howls of derision from the audience. When it was re-staged in 1923 in a more professional production, the play provoked a theatre riot (initiated by André Breton) that heralded the split within the movement that was to produce Surrealism. Tzara's last attempt at a Dadaist drama was his "ironic tragedy" ''Handkerchief of Clouds'' in 1924.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands the Dada movement centered mainly around Theo van Doesburg, best known for establishing the De Stijl movement and magazine of the same name. Van Doesburg mainly focused on poetry, and included poems from many well-known Dada writers in ''De Stijl'' such as Hugo Ball, Hans Arp and Kurt Schwitters. Van Doesburg became a friend of Schwitters, and together they organized the so-called ''Dutch Dada campaign'' in 1923, where Van Doesburg promoted a leaflet about Dada (entitled ''What is Dada?''), Schwitters read his poems, Vilmos Huszàr demonstrated a mechanical dancing doll and Nelly Van Doesburg (Theo's wife), played avant-garde compositions on piano.

Van Doesburg wrote Dada poetry himself in ''De Stijl'', although under a pseudonym, I.K. Bonset, which was only revealed after his death in 1931. 'Together' with I.K. Bonset, he also published a short-lived Dutch Dada magazine called ''Mécano''.

Georgia

Although Dada itself was unknown in Georgia until at least 1920, from 1917-1921 a group of poets called themselves "41st Degree" (referring both to the latitude of Tbilisi, Georgia and to the temperature of a high fever) organized along Dadaist lines. The most important figure in this group was Iliazd, whose radical typographical designs visually echo the publications of the Dadaists. After his flight to Paris in 1921, he collaborated with Dadaists on publications and events.

Yugoslavia

In Yugoslavia there was heavy Dada activity between 1920 and 1922 run mainly by Dragan Aleksic and including Mihailo S. Petrov, Zenitist's two brothers Ljubomir Micic and Branko Ve Poljanski. Aleksic used the term "Yugo-Dada" and is known to have been in contact with Raoul Hausmann, Kurt Schwitters, and Tristan Tzara.

Tokyo

A prominent Dada group in Japan was MAVO (JA), founded by Tomoyoshi Murayama and Masamu Yanase (DE, JA). Other prominent artists were Jun Tsuji, Eisuke Yoshiyuki, Shinkichi Takahashi (JA) and Katsue Kitasono.

Poetry; music and sound

Dada was not confined to the visual and literary arts; its influence reached into sound and music. Kurt Schwitters developed what he called ''sound poems'' and composers such as Erwin Schulhoff, Hans Heusser and Albert Savinio wrote ''Dada music'', while members of Les Six collaborated with members of the Dada movement and had their works performed at Dada gatherings. The above mentioned Erik Satie dabbled with Dadaist ideas throughout his career although he is primarily associated with musical Impressionism.

In the very first Dada publication, Hugo Ball describes a "balalaika orchestra playing delightful folk-songs." African music and jazz was common at Dada gatherings, signaling a return to nature and naive primitivism.

Legacy

While broad, the movement was unstable. By 1924 in Paris, Dada was melding into surrealism, and artists had gone on to other ideas and movements, including surrealism, social realism and other forms of modernism. Some theorists argue that Dada was actually the beginning of postmodern art.

By the dawn of World War II, many of the European Dadaists had emigrated to the United States. Some died in death camps under Adolf Hitler, who persecuted the kind of "Degenerate art" that Dada represented. The movement became less active as post-World War II optimism led to new movements in art and literature.

Dada is a named influence and reference of various anti-art and political and cultural movements including the Situationist International and culture jamming groups like the Cacophony Society.

At the same time that the Zurich Dadaists made noise and spectacle at the Cabaret Voltaire, Vladimir Lenin wrote his revolutionary plans for Russia in a nearby apartment. Tom Stoppard used this coincidence as a premise for his play ''Travesties'' (1974), which includes Tzara, Lenin, and James Joyce as characters. French writer Dominique Noguez imagined Lenin as a member of the Dada group in his tongue-in-cheek ''Lénine Dada'' (1989).

The Cabaret Voltaire fell into disrepair until it was occupied from January to March, 2002, by a group proclaiming themselves Neo-Dadaists, led by Mark Divo. The group included Jan Thieler, Ingo Giezendanner, Aiana Calugar, Lennie Lee and Dan Jones. After their eviction the space became a museum dedicated to the history of Dada. The work of Lee and Jones remained on the walls of the museum.

Several notable retrospectives have examined the influence of Dada upon art and society. In 1967, a large Dada retrospective was held in Paris, France. In 2006, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City held a Dada exhibition in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Art techniques developed

Collage

The dadaists imitated the techniques developed during the cubist movement through the pasting of cut pieces of paper items, but extended their art to encompass items such as transportation tickets, maps, plastic wrappers, etc. to portray aspects of life, rather than representing objects viewed as still life.

Photomontage

The Dadaists - the "monteurs" (mechanics) - used scissors and glue rather than paintbrushes and paints to express their views of modern life through images presented by the media. A variation on the collage technique, photomontage utilized actual or reproductions of real photographs printed in the press. In Cologne, Max Ernst used images from World War I to illustrate messages of the destruction of war.

Assemblage

The assemblages were three-dimensional variations of the collage - the assembly of everyday objects to produce meaningful or meaningless (relative to the war) pieces of work including war objects and trash. Objects were nailed, screwed or fastened together in different fashions. Assemblages could been seen in the round or could be hung on a wall. [[File:MechanicalHead-Hausmann.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.40|Raoul Hausmann Mechanischer Kopf (Der Geist unserer Zeit) (Mechanical Head [The Spirit of Our Age]), c. 1920]]

Readymades

Marcel Duchamp began to view the manufactured objects of his collection as objects of art, which he called "readymades". He would add signatures and titles to some, converting them into artwork that he called "readymade aided" or "rectified readymades". Duchamp wrote: "One important characteristic was the short sentence which I occasionally inscribed on the 'readymade.' That sentence, instead of describing the object like a title, was meant to carry the mind of the spectator towards other regions more verbal. Sometimes I would add a graphic detail of presentation which in order to satisfy my craving for alliterations, would be called 'readymade aided.'" One such example of Duchamp's readymade works is the urinal that was turned onto its back, signed "R. Mutt", titled "Fountain", and submitted to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition that year.

See also

Art intervention

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

The Central Council of Dada for the World Revolution

Épater la bourgeoisie

Futurism

Happening

References

Bibliography

''The Dada Almanac'', ed Richard Huelsenbeck [1920], re-edited and translated by Malcolm Green et al., Atlas Press, with texts by Hans Arp, Johannes Baader, Hugo Ball, Paul Citröen, Paul Dermée, Daimonides, Max Goth, John Heartfield, Raoul Hausmann, Richard Huelsenbeck, Vincente Huidobro, Mario D’Arezzo, Adon Lacroix, Walter Mehring, Francis Picabia, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Alexander Sesqui, Philippe Soupault, Tristan Tzara. ISBN 0-947757-62-7

''Blago Bung, Blago Bung'', Hugo Ball's Tenderenda, Richard Huelsenbeck's Fantastic Prayers, & Walter Serner's Last Loosening - three key texts of Zurich ur-Dada. Translated and introduced by Malcolm Green. Atlas Press, ISBN 0-947757-86-4

Ball, Hugo. ''Flight Out Of Time'' (University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1996)

Dachy, Marc. Journal du mouvement Dada 1915-1923, Genève, Albert Skira, 1989 (Grand Prix du Livre d'Art, 1990)

''Dada & les dadaïsmes'', Paris, Gallimard, Folio Essais, n° 257, 1994.

Jovanov, Jasna. ''Demistifikacija apokrifa: Dadaizam na jugoslovenskim prostorima'', Novi Sad/Apostrof 1999.

''Dada, la révolte de l'art'', Paris, Gallimard / Centre Pompidou, Découvertes n° 476, 2005.

''Archives Dada / Chronique'', Paris, Hazan, 2005.

''Dada, catalogue d'exposition'', Centre Pompidou, 2005.

Durozoi, Gérard. ''Dada et les arts rebelles'', Paris, Hazan, Guide des Arts, 2005

Hoffman, Irene. ''Documents of Dada and Surrealism: Dada and Surrealist Journals in the Mary Reynolds Collection'', Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago.

Huelsenbeck, Richard. ''Memoirs of a Dada Drummer'', (University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991)

Jones, Dafydd. ''Dada Culture'', NY and Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2006

Lemoine, Serge. ''Dada'', Paris, Hazan, coll. L'Essentiel.

Lista, Giovanni. ''Dada libertin & libertaire'', Paris, L'insolite, 2005.

Melzer, Annabelle. 1976. ''Dada and Surrealist Performance.'' PAJ Books ser. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. ISBN 0-8018-4845-8.

Richter, Hans. ''Dada: Art and Anti-Art'' (London: Thames and Hudson, 1965)

Sanouillet, Michel. ''Dada à Paris'', Paris, Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1965, Flammarion, 1993, CNRS, 2005

Sanouillet, Michel. ''Dada in Paris'', Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 2009

Schneede, Uwe M. ''George Grosz, His life and work'' (New York: Universe Books, 1979)

Verdier, Aurélie. ''L'ABCdaire de Dada'', Paris, Flammarion, 2005.

External links

Dada art - includes images showing the characteristics of Dada

The International Dada Archive - includes scans of publications

Dadart - includes history, bibliography, documents, and news

Dada magazine translated into English and remastered for the internet.

;Manifestos

Text of Hugo Ball's 1916 ''Dada Manifesto''

Text of Tristan Tzara's 1918 ''Dada Manifesto''

Excerpts of Tristan Tzara's ''Dada Manifesto'' (1918) and ''Lecture on Dada'' (1922)

Category:Avant-garde art Category:Art movements Dada Category:Modernism

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Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
name	Aphex Twin
landscape	yes
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Richard David James
born	August 18, 1971 Limerick, Ireland
origin	Lanner, Cornwall, United Kingdom
genre	Electronic
instrument	Synthesizer, piano, electronics, laptop, softsynth, turntables, drum machine, computer, sampler
occupation	Musician, composer, remixer
years active	1985-present
associated acts	Universal Indicator, Mike & Rich
website	}}

Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music". He founded the record label Rephlex Records in 1991 with Grant Wilson-Claridge.

Aphex Twin has also recorded music under the aliases AFX, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Caustic Window, DJ Smojphace, GAK, Martin Tressider, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Prichard D. Jams, Q-Chastic, Tahnaiya Russell, The Dice Man, Soit-P.P., and speculatively The Tuss.

Aphex Twin has released albums on Rephlex, Warp, R&S;, Sire, Mighty Force, Rabbit City, and Men Records.

History

Early years

Richard David James was born to Welsh parents Lorna and Derek James in St. Munchin's Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital, Ireland. He grew up in Lanner, Cornwall, England enjoying, along with two older sisters, a "very happy" childhood during which they, according to James, "were pretty much left to do what [they] wanted." He "liked growing up there, being cut off from the city and the rest of the world". James attended Redruth School, located in Redruth, Cornwall.

According to musician Benjamin Middleton, James started producing music at the age of 12. As a teenager he was a disc jockey at the Shire Horse Inn in St Ives, with Tom Middleton at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock, and also along the numerous beaches around Cornwall. James studied for a National Diploma in Engineering from 1988 to 1990 (aged 16 to 18) at Cornwall College. Talking about his studies, James has said that "music and electronics went hand in hand." James graduated from college; according to an engineering lecturer, however, he often had his headphones on during practical lessons, "no doubt thinking through the mixes he'd be working on later".

Early career: early 1990s

In 1989 James met and befriended Grant Wilson-Claridge when working as a DJ on alternate weeks at the Bowgie pub, near Newquay in Cornwall. Wilson-Claridge was intrigued by James's sets and was surprised to discover that James was playing tapes of his own music.

James' first release was the 12-inch EP ''Analogue Bubblebath'' on Mighty Force Records in 1991. It was first released under the moniker Aphex Twin, later changed to AFX. The track "En Trance to Exit" was made in collaboration with Tom Middleton, also known as Schizophrenia. The EP got on the playlist of Kiss FM, an influential London radio station, which helped the release to become a success.

In 1991, James and Wilson-Claridge founded Rephlex Records to promote "innovation in the dynamics of Acid — a much-loved and -misunderstood genre of house music forgotten by some and indeed new to others, especially in Britain."

Between 1991 and 1993, James released two ''Analogue Bubblebath'' EPs as AFX, and an EP under Bradley Strider, ''Bradley's Beat''. James moved to London to take an electronics course at Kingston Polytechnic, but at the time admitted to David Toop that his "electronics studies were already slipping away as a career in the techno business took precedence." After quitting his course, James remained in London and released a number of albums and EPs on Warp Records and other labels under many aliases including AFX, Polygon Window, and Power-Pill. A number of James' tracks (released under the aliases Blue Calx, The Dice Man, and others) appeared on various compilations. Local legend has it that James lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London during his early years in the capital - in fact he lived in a nearby disused bank.

Gaining success: 1992–1995

The first full-length Aphex Twin album, ''Selected Ambient Works 85–92'', was released in 1992 on R&S; Records. It received high ratings and praise from critics. John Bush of Allmusic described it as a "watershed of ambient music". In 2002, ''Rolling Stone'' wrote of the album: "Aphex Twin expanded way beyond the ambient music of Brian Eno by fusing lush soundscapes with oceanic beats and bass lines." Pitchfork Media's review called it, "among the most interesting music ever created with a keyboard and a computer." Critics also noted that the songs were recorded on cassette and that the sound quality was "relatively poor".

In 1992, he also released the EPs ''Xylem Tube EP'' and ''Digeridoo'' (first played by DJ Colin Faver on London's Kiss FM) as Aphex Twin, as Power-Pill the ''Pac-Man EP'' based on the arcade game ''Pac-Man'', and two of his four Caustic Window EPs. "Digeridoo" reached #55 in the UK Singles Chart, and was later described as foreshadowing drum and bass by ''Rolling Stone''. "Digeridoo" was recorded initially for the benefit of FIZZ-BOMB (at the Shire Horse, St Ives, Cornwall). These early releases came out on Rephlex Records, Mighty Force of Exeter, and R&S; Records of Belgium.

In 1993, James released ''Analogue Bubblebath 3''. He also released a single titled "On"; his second Bradley Strider EP, ''Bradley's Robot''; two more Caustic Window EPs; and his first releases on Warp Records, ''Surfing on Sine Waves'' and "Quoth" under the alias Polygon Window.

Warp Records pressed and released a follow-up to ''Selected Ambient Works 85-92'', ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' in 1994. The sound was much less beat and melody-driven than the previous volume. All of the track names were described with pie chart symbols, each of which was meant to be paired with a corresponding image in the album jacket, with exception for one song, which was named "Blue Calx". To decipher song titles, listeners had to compare the length of each track with the size of each pie chart symbol. For example, the first title, which is often labelled ''cliffs'', is realised by pairing the first symbol with the first image, which is that of a rocky cliffside. James claimed in ''The Wire'' magazine and other media that these songs were inspired by lucid dreams and synaesthesia. Other releases are a fourth ''Analogue Bubblebath''; ''GAK'', derived from early demos sent to Warp Records; and ''Classics'', a compilation album that includes "Digeridoo" and the ''Xylem Tube EP''.

For his 1995 release, ''...I Care Because You Do'', James used an image of his face for the album cover, a motif that would continue on many of his later records. The album was a compilation of songs composed between 1990 and 1994 and represented a mish-mash of Aphex Twin's various music styles. This was James's last record of the 1990s to use mostly analogue synthesizers. He commissioned Western classical-music composer Philip Glass to create an orchestral version of one of the songs from this album, "Icct Hedral", which appeared on the ''Donkey Rhubarb'' EP.

Jungle, DSP, and laptops: 1995–1999

In 1995 (primarily with ''Hangable Auto Bulb'', a near anagram of ''Analogue Bubblebath''), James began releasing more material composed on computers, combining a jungle sound with nostalgic childhood themes and computer-generated acid lines.

James's early adoption of software synthesizers predated the later popularity of using computers to make music. In the mid-to-late 1990s, his music became more popular and mainstream, as he released ''Richard D. James Album'' and ''Expert Knob Twiddlers'' (a collaboration with fellow dance producer µ-ziq) in 1996, "Come to Daddy" in 1997 (#36 on UK charts) and "Windowlicker" in 1999 (#16 on UK charts). Two pop songs that heavily use Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques, "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" were shown on MTV and became cover features for music magazines such as ''NME''. The videos for both singles were directed by British artist Chris Cunningham and caused controversy on release because of their disturbing images and themes.

In 1998, Aphex Twin's track "[rhubarb]" (from ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'') appeared as part of the BBC's digital widescreen test transmission, which was on loop for many months as the service was introduced across the UK.

Prepared piano, laptops, and more DSP: 2000–2003

In 2001 Aphex Twin released ''drukqs'', a two-CD album that featured computer controlled piano songs influenced by Erik Satie and John Cage. Many of the tracks' names are written in the Cornish language (e.g., 'jynweythek' translatable as 'machinemusic'). Also included were abrasive, fast, and meticulously programmed computer-made songs. ''Rolling Stone'' described the piano songs as "aimlessly pretty". Some reviewers concluded that ''drukqs'' was released as a contract breaker with Warp Records—a credible guess, as James's next big release was released on his own Rephlex label. James claimed to interviewers he had accidentally left an MP3 player labelled "Aphex Twin—unreleased tracks" on a plane, containing a large set of new songs, and rushed the album release to preempt an Internet leak. He also released a short EP titled ''2 Remixes By AFX'' the same year as ''Drukqs''. It featured two remixes, the originals being from 808 State and DJ Pierre. In addition, there is one untitled third track that consists of an SSTV image, which consists of mostly of high-pitched sounds, which can be decoded to a viewable image by proper software such as MultiMode (for Macintosh) or MMSSTV (for Windows).

Synthesizers and drum machines: 2004–2011

In late 2004, rumours of James's return to an acid techno-based sound were realised with the ''Analord'' series, an 11-part series of EPs with 42 total tracks, averaging 2–4 tracks per EP. The series was created by playing and sequencing analogue and digital electronic music equipment such as synthesizers and drum machines. The series was recorded on magnetic tape and then later pressed on vinyl.

James was meticulous about the whole process of recording, mastering, and pressing. James has said Rephlex Records was strict on quality control, trying out various pressing-plant companies until they felt it sounded perfect. To James's ears, vinyl or tape is better than digital, as no two copies are the same. However, label co-owner Grant Wilson-Claridge convinced James to release a CD compilation, ''Chosen Lords'', which included 10 selected tracks from the ''Analord'' series. For the ''Analord'' series James used his collection of vintage synthesizer and drum machines, some of which were quite rare by that time. Some of the record inserts have pictures of rare synthesizers like the Synton Fenix, and the notoriously difficult-to-program Roland MC-4 sequencer, as well as the legendary Roland TB-303.

Media reports indicate Aphex Twin is now recording under The Tuss. Rephlex Records has denied that Aphex Twin is The Tuss, but Aphex Twin fans and the media have ignored Rephlex's denial and The Tuss is treated as yet another Aphex Twin project; further evidence being provided by the fact that all Tuss tracks are published in the BMI Repertoire under the name JAMES RICHARD DAVID.

In March 2009 Steve Beckett of Warp Records announced a new album for a possible release. As of May 2011, no new album was released, however, 20 more tracks were added to the ''Analord'' series in December 2009, only available through download from the Rephlex Records website.

In an October 2010 interview with British magazine Another Man, James stated that he had completed 6 albums, one of which was a remake of the unreleased ''Melodies from Mars'', originally produced around the time of ''Richard D. James Album''.

Background details

The Aphex Twin name

The name Aphex is derived from Aphex Systems Limited, a brand of audio signal processing equipment (itself derived from "analogue effects"). It is used with permission, as acknowledged on the back sleeves of ''Richard D. James Album'' and ''drukqs''. He has explained in interviews that the Twin portion of his moniker is used in memory of his older brother, also named Richard James, who died at birth.

Artwork

James's own face, grinning or distorted in some way, is a common theme in his album covers, his music videos, and the songs themselves. The cover of ''I Care Because You Do'' features a painting of James, while the cover of ''Richard D. James Album'' presents a close-up photograph. His face is transplanted onto other peoples' bodies in the music videos of "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker". Near the end of the second track of the "Windowlicker" single (commonly referred to as "Equation"), a photo of James's face is embedded as a steganogram which is revealed when run through spectral analysis. Another embedded image of James, along with collaborator Tom Jenkinson, appears in the third track of ''2 Remixes by AFX'', "Bonus High Frequency Sounds", encoded in SSTV format, with text relating to the release.

James has used his own photography for some of his releases, such as the elaborate album sleeve for ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II''.

Braindance

Richard's own Rephlex Records label, which he co-owns with Grant Wilson-Claridge, coined the term Braindance in 1991 to describe Aphex Twin's music. Rephlex Records' official definition of Aphex Twin and his followers' music is quoted as follows: "Braindance is the genre that encompasses the best elements of all genres, e.g traditional, classical, electronic music, popular, modern, industrial, ambient, hip-hop, electro, house, techno, breakbeat, hardcore, ragga, garage, drum and bass, etc."

Braindance applies to forward-thinking electronic music that can appeal to the mind as well as the desire to dance and party. Examples including Ed-DMX's Breakin' records label, µ-ziq's Planet-mu label, the Aphex Twin EP ''Come to Daddy'' and ''Astrobotnia Parts 1, 2 & 3''.

Influences

At age 17, Richard D. James mentioned these influences: "Phonic Boy, ''Computer World'', Mental Telepathy, Industrial Inc., Tomita, Tangerine Dream". Mixmaster Morris mentions on the "I Luv AFX" BBC Radio 1 ''Breezeblock'' session that James' preferred moniker while working as a DJ in Cornwall was Phonic Boy on Dope. More recently, he has said that he gets inspiration from "everyday sounds that can be emulated/reconstructed electronically, quality techno, especially from Europe, which overshadows the current hardcore pop crap." When asked about what is next for electronic music, he said "acid-techno, ambient-techno." Avant-garde music has been an influence on James, including artists such as Kraftwerk, Can, Tangerine Dream, Tod Dockstader, Xenakis, Piero Umiliani, Bernard Parmegiani, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, and the French composer Erik Satie for his piano works and his ideas for furniture music.

In acknowledgment of another influence, James released ''Music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop'', a compilation of music recorded by the pioneers of BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which included artists such as Delia Derbyshire, on his own label, Rephlex Records.

Many songs include sounds from and references to the ZX Spectrum. For instance, "Carn Marth" from ''Richard D. James Album'' includes the tape-loading noise of the game ''Sabre Wulf''.

Influence on others

The London Sinfonietta has performed arrangements of Aphex Twin tracks. In 2005, the orchestra Alarm Will Sound released ''Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin''. The album consists of acoustic arrangements of some of James's electronic tracks. Aphex Twin has said, "I don't really like rock & roll." Despite this, he has had an influence on rock bands like Radiohead. However, he has dismissed the notion of going on tour with them: "I wouldn't play with them since I don't like them." The animator David Firth has much of his work influenced and soundtracked by Aphex Twin.

Intelligent Dance Music

The term 'intelligent dance music', or IDM, was coined in August 1993 by the (now defunct) IDM mailing list based at hyperreal.org, as a term to describe the sound pioneered by the Warp Records Artificial Intelligence Series. The series featured Aphex Twin tracks (under a different pseudonym), as well as early productions from labelmates such as Autechre and LFO. The usage of this term spread in the USA and on internet messageboards, but the term is still a source of controversy and derision amongst the artists and fans, including Aphex Twin.

Aphex Twin refers to his own breakbeat tracks as breakbeat, jungle, or drum and bass interchangeably. Other genres that he indulges in include acid, ambient, ambient techno, noise, and many more.

Equipment

! Synth	! Synth	! Drum Machine	! Sampler	! Sequencer	! Software	! Effects
Roland SH-101	Yamaha DX 1	Roland TR-606	Casio SK-1	Roland MC-4 Microcomposer	Reaktor	Alesis Quadraverb
Roland TB-303	EMS synthi 100	Roland TR-808	Atari ST	ReCycle
Yamaha GX1	Elka Synthex	Roland TR-909	Casio FZ 10	Cubase	Metasynth
Synton Fenix	Roland Paraphonic 505	Roland TR-707	Roland SP-808	Apple Mac
Roland MKS-80	3 Korg MS-20's	Roland TR-727
Roland 100m	Yamaha CS 5	SuperCollider

During an interview with Future Music, Richard said he likes using Ableton Live but prefers Liveslice for beat editing/stretching. Asked what equipment did use, he responded "Raveolution 309, the Raven Max, MC-909 limited edition, Quasimidi Van Helden, MAM Freebass 383, Roland DJ-70, E-15, SP-808, Akai S3200, Behringer MX602A and all the Behringer effects that copy other things."

Aphex Twin's press

James described himself in ''The Guardian'' as follows: "I'm just some irritating, lying, ginger kid from Cornwall who should have been locked up in some youth detention centre. I just managed to escape and blag it into music."

James said he composed ambient techno music at the age of 13; he claims to have "over 100 hours" of unreleased music, and to have made his own software to compose with, including algorithmic processes that automatically generate beats and melodies; in addition he claims to experience synaesthesia, and that he is able to incorporate lucid dreaming into the process of making music.

He lives in southeast London in a converted bank, which was formerly the Bank of Cyprus and then HSBC. Contrary to popular opinion, however, he does not own the silver structure in the centre of the roundabout at Elephant and Castle. This is, in fact, the Michael Faraday Memorial, containing a power transformer for the Northern Line, which James jokingly claimed to be buying in an interview with ''The Face'' magazine in 2001. Some of these rumours are hard to confirm as he has been known to spread mistruths in the prankster tradition, making such claims as only sleeping two to three hours a night.

Stockhausen vs. The Technocrats

In November 1995, ''The Wire'' published an article titled "Advice to Clever Children". In the process of producing the interview, a package of tapes containing music from several artists, including Aphex Twin, was sent to Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Stockhausen commented:

Aphex Twin, a fan of Stockhausen, responded: }}

ZX81 competition

Richard claims to have produced sound on a Sinclair ZX81 (a machine with no sound hardware) at the age of 11:

When I was 11, I won 50 pounds in a competition for writing this program that made sound on a ZX81. You couldn't make sound on a ZX81, but I played around with machine code and found some codes that retuned the TV signal so that it made this really weird noise when you turned the volume up.

Discography

Studio albums (as Aphex Twin)

''Selected Ambient Works 85–92'' (1992)

''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' (1994)

''...I Care Because You Do'' (1995)

''Richard D. James Album'' (1996)

''Drukqs'' (2001)

References

External links

Aphex Twin discography at Discogs.

Category:1971 births Category:Ambient musicians Category:Braindance musicians Category:British electronic musicians Category:British experimental musicians Category:British techno musicians Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:Intelligent dance music musicians Category:Living people Category:People from Cornwall Category:People from County Limerick Category:Sire Records artists Category:Remixers Category:Warp Records artists Category:TVT Records artists Category:People with synesthesia

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Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
name	Marcel Janco
born	May 24, 1895
birth date	May 24, 1895
birth place	Bucharest, Romania
| nationality	Romanian, Israeli
field	Painting
training	l'Ecole Polytechnique, Zurich, Switzerland
movement	Israeli art
awards	Dizengoff Prize Histadrut Prize Israel Prize }}

Marcel Janco (born Marcel Iancu; ; May 24, 1895 – April 21, 1984) was a Romanian-born Israeli painter and architect, and one of the founders of the Dada movement.

Biography

Janco was born to a Jewish family in 1895, in Bucharest, Romania.

A friend and compatriot of Tristan Tzara, he was among the founders of the Dadaist movement, established in 1916 at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland, by a group of exiled poets, painters, and philosophers who were opposed to war, aggression, and the changing world culture. In 1922, Janco returned to Romania, where he gained fame as a painter and architect.

In 1941, fleeing the Nazis, he moved to Palestine, and was one of the founders of the New Horizons Group (1948). The Janco-Dada Museum, which opened in 1983, features Janco's work and explores the history of the Dada movement.

In 1953, Janco established the Ein Hod artists' village near Haifa, Israel. Towards the end of his life he helped found the Dada museum in Ein Hod which bears his name. The museum houses Janco's art, explores the history of Dadaism and mounts changing exhibitions.

Janco died on April 21, 1984, at the age of 88.

Education

1915 – studied Architecture, l'Ecole Polytechnique, Zurich, Switzerland

Teaching

1953 Seminar Ha'Kibbutzim, Oranim

Awards

In 1945, 1946, and again in 1950 and 1951, Janco was awarded the Dizengoff Prize for Painting.

1958 The Histadrut Prize

In 1967, he was awarded the Israel Prize, in painting.

1982 worthy of the City of Tel-Aviv, Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Tel Aviv

In 2005, he was voted the 184th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website ''Ynet'' to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.

Bibliography

See also

List of Israel Prize recipients

Anti-art

References

External links

Ein Hod Artists' Village

Janco Dada Museum

Marcel Janco from the collections of the Israel Museum

Marcel Janco from the Israeli artist list of the Information Center for Israeli Art at the Israel Museum

Europeana – Search results Europeana – Janco, Marcel

Category:Romanian architects Category:Romanian painters Category:Dada Category:Romanian surrealist artists Category:Israeli architects Category:Israeli painters Category:People from Bucharest Category:Romanian Jews Category:Gheorghe Lazăr National College (Bucharest) alumni Category:Romanian emigrants to Israel Category:Israeli Jews Category:Dizengoff Prize recipients Category:Israel Prize in painting recipients Category:1895 births Category:1984 deaths

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