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| Understanding Massurrealism Dr. Florian Deltgen PhD, PD | |
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| Massurrealism represents an evolution of Surrealism that has been strongly influenced by mass media and technology. One important aspect of massurrealism is a characteristic shared by all massurrealists: the connection between media subjects and media techniques on the one hand and the concept of the surreal on the other. This connection finds its individual expression in each individual artist. The techniques bridge the gap between "traditional" and new media. As time goes by, newer media and technologies will be developed. The constantly developing computer techn ology alone changes what we call mass media. Massurrealism, as a basic global art concept, follows this development and in doing so embodies the mystery of present society. It inspriation is embedded into the expression of the power of human imagination and creativity. Salvador Dali once said "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad." One could argue that he was wrong. There is another difference: the madman is not an artist. This provides a unique definition of surrealistic art: "It is the work of an artist who is not a madman but who thinks and perceives like a madman who is not an artist." If one realizes that this refers to surrealism still within the framework of l'art pour l'art and to artists who used brushes, oil colors and canvas, massurrealism evolves as a logical, even inevitable, consequence when surrealistic art is used as a means of mass communication through mass media in a mass-consumer environment, and when the pre-digital tools of the artist are replaced with digital tools: the mouse, software design programs, and modern digital media. If elements of extra-human reality are interlinked with elements of human dreaming, ideation, and emotions, all digitally liberated from the laws of physics, logic, and time and applied for the purpose of mass communication, consumer advertising, and entertainment in digital or digitalized mass media, the result is: massurrealism. Digital media are rapidly expanding into the areas of sound, touch, taste, and smell, even holographic reality. This will further widen the theory and reality of massurrealism to not only comprehensively mirror both subjective and objective reality, as they are experienced by the human mind, but also to create comprehensive virtual realities of the mind that are limited only by the technological means with which they are created. Massurrealism appears to be the inescapable art of the future - and perhaps its last frontier until we enter the age of genetically engineered semi-human cyborgs that transcend the limitations both of today's binary systems and of human brain functions.•02.27.2008 |
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