Salvador Dali

Surrealist thought emerged around 1920, partly as an outgrowth of Dada, and partly with the help of its initial principal theorist, French writer Andre Breton; the author of “The Surrealist Manifesto.”

Andre Breton ’s definitions of Surrealism:

Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.

Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life.

Surrealism is a cultural, social and political movement that was developed by 20th century writers and artists. Surrealists assert that liberation of the human mind and subsequent liberation of society and the individual can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the “unconscious mind,” to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or ultimately “truer” than everyday reality. Surrealists believe that this more truthful reality can bring about personal, cultural, and social revolution, and a life of freedom, poetry, and uninhibited sexuality.

Salvador Dali is one of the most influential artists to the Surrealist movement. Although he tackled many other artistic styles, he is most famous for his view of Surrealism.

Adherents of Surrealism thought that the horrors of World War I were the culmination of the Industrial Revolution and the result of rational thinking. Consequently, irrational thought and dream-states were seen as the natural antidote to social problems. The Surrealist diagnosis of the problem of the realism and capitalist civilization is that both utilize a restrictive overlay of false rationality, including social and academic convention, on the free functioning of the instinctual urges of the human mind.

Holography is “lens-less photography” in which an image is captured not as an image focused on film, but as an interference pattern at the film. It is an advanced form of photography that allows an image to be recorded in three dimensions. A hologram can create everything your eyes see: size, shape, texture and relative position. However, if you try to touch a holographic image, all you’ll find is focused light.

See an example of Dali’s holography starring Alice Cooper here .

Typically, coherent light from a laser is reflected from an object and combined at the film with light from a reference beam. This recorded interference pattern actually contains much more information that a focused image. The image will change its appearance if you look at it from a different angle. Today, holography is a popular method among artists. Since Dali’s time, the quality of the holograms has increased dramatically, mainly due to better holographic emulsions.

Salvador Dali claimed to be the first to use holography artistically, which is just not true; but Dali was the first Surrealist to use the technique. He was always enthusiastic about optics in general and opportunities of its application for creation of volumetric illusion.