A leap day. A reminder that if we can make extra days, we can do whatever we want. But today I’m reading headlines about viruses, panicked shoppers stocking up on bottled water, and a health task force held by a medieval Christian who does not believe in science. Meanwhile the Democratic Party is hellbent on nominating a candidate who promises “a return to normal” even though “normal” is exactly what led to today’s calamities.
“The beginnings of Dada were not art but disgust,” said Tristan Tzara in 1918. Each day the rationale for Dada’s rejection of logic makes a little more sense. But cynicism is a cheap dodge, isn’t it? The challenge is maintaining a sense of dignity and compassion in an increasingly undignified and dispassionate culture.
As public life turns increasingly inhuman and incoherent, perhaps the Surrealists provided an answer by directing their focus towards the subconscious and dreams. Our technologies are designed to focus on the self, to advertise and satisfy the ego—yet what if these energies were pointed at the subconscious instead?
