Dada in Contemporary Culture

When Dada first emerged as an art and literary form, it was the ultimate creative rebellion against all that had essentially gone wrong with the early part of the century. World War I brought about the feeling that we all live in a world that doesn’t make sense and Dada became a revolt against the social and artistic structures that had hitherto been left alone. 

The Dada movement almost seemed to be proving that there was no sense left in the world and it is easy to imagine this sentiment when one looks at the horrors and devastation left over after the War. All across Europe and America, people’s sense that the world they lived in was not all “wine and roses” was clear and this led to Dada’s emergence. 

While I may be embarking on a flawed argument, it is my belief that there is a new Dadaism that can be seen in today’s modern culture. Before I get to a couple of examples, I should make it clear what I mean when I say this. Whereas the first Dada movement early in the century was brought about once people’s notions of humanity and civility had been shattered (or at least rocked) I will argue that if in fact there is a new form of Dadaism emerging, it is doing so because of the chaos of the information age. 

With so many bells and whistles and communication devices, modern society is becoming mired in so much input that it’s impossible for us to process it all completely. It seems to me that we are heading towards an “overload”—the only difference between this state and the state of the original Dadaists being that we in the modern world are overloaded with information while the first Dadaists were overloaded with emotion. While this may seem like a strange comparison, think about it this way: we are being so overloaded that after time, things no longer make sense.