Inspiration from Dada and other movements

The Dada 'movement' of art of anti-art of the period between 1916 and 1923 was suggested by a teacher for a source of inspiration and, indeed, it and its contemporaries have greatly influenced my ideas.

The artists which originally devised Dada did so in Zurich, Switzerland, and in outraged protest to the First World War and society's failure to prevent it from happening, creating 'anti-art' against the norms of their perceived meaningless civilisation. I may be able to link this aspect of Dada to the civil unrest and pessimistic attitudes toward such aspects of modern society as the war in Afghanistan and the economic crisis in Europe and elsewhere, branding my work as an act of protest, rebellion or simply critique to what I and my audience may disagree with in 21st century Britain.

Surrealism is often described as a movement which came out of the implosion of Dada as it began to become too socially accepted for its own tastes. Surrealism takes into account much of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical theories, specifically the subconscious mind. As sleep is a key factor in the planning of my video and print productions, I became particularly interested in surreal art such as the work of Salvador Dali, and have hoped to create a digipak which is open to interpretation, as with some surrealist pieces which on the suface may seem difficult to interpret. It, like Dada, has inspired me to incorporate bright, eye-catching colours into the piece.

FInally, and building upon the use of stark, bright colours, pop art has encouraged me to create a digipak which may appear to be a print. Apart from the obvious inspiration from Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein's detached, comic strip works have made certain my choice to create a fairly simplistic print design over a photograph or purely illustrated set of images.

Roy Lichetenstein's 'Whaam!'