In February-March, 1933, the surrealists engaged in experimental research on the "irrational knowledge of the object." Questionnaires were drawn up and naturally, the participants answered the questionnaire without knowledge of anyone else's responses. When considered together, these answers were themselves divergent and "irrational."
Concerning the "irrational possibilities of penetration and orientation in a picture"...namely The Enigma of a Day by Chirico, a painting that hung at the time on the wall of André Breton's studio, where surrealist experiments usually took place. Here are a few of the questions (the full results were published in Le Surréalisme, ASDLR, no. 6, May 15, 1933).
1. Where is the sea?
2. Where would a phantom appear?
3. Describe the landscape around the town.
4. Where would one make love?
5. Where would one masturbate?
6. Where would one defecate?
7. Whom does the statue represent?
8. What time is it?
9. What advertisement should be put up on the building at the left?
1. Where is the sea?
2. Where would a phantom appear?
3. Describe the landscape around the town.
4. Where would one make love?
5. Where would one masturbate?
6. Where would one defecate?
7. Whom does the statue represent?
8. What time is it?
9. What advertisement should be put up on the building at the right?
This surrealist game was submitted to me by surrealist ADSPOTA in September of 2002. Please read ADSPOTA's introduction and method of playing below.
In these procedures the object is considered in terms of its possible meanings or functions, as opposed to its actual ones. An irrational approach to knowledge is pursued with the single-mindedness of any conventional scientific research.
An object is selected whose irrational nature is to be determined by a set of questions. Upon reading the question, each player must write his/her response in a rapid pace and go on to the next question. Each response should be brief and concise. Merci et bonne chance!
1. How did it come to appear in the cave?
2. What is its latent relationship to the cave?
3. Who has suffered most from its loss?
4. Of all the species that have encountered it accidentally in the cave, who was most affected by it, and how so?
5. If you were to encounter it by chance in a disorienting setting, what subconscious memory would it trigger in you?
6. What is its most common, least obvious use?
7. What is its most subversive use?
8. If it was in your hand right now, how would you incorporate it productively into your daily life?
9. Is it capable of metamorphoses?
10. Is it capable of transforming others. If so, how?
11. If you were to see it reflected in a mirror, what would its negative image suggest to you?
12. With what historical figure can it be associated?
13. What part of a sleeping woman's/man's naked anatomy would you place it on?
14. And if he/she were dead?
15. In what material do you see it wrapped?
16. If it was made available to George W. Bush or Saddam Hussein mysteriously in the middle of the night, what would their initial impulses towards it reveal about them?
