Wells Cathedral

The first thing that struck when I looked if the Dada movement was the Polemic nature of their inception. How the horrors of the first world war and the inhumane rule of the bourgeoisies had led these men and women to question where the society of the time was heading. It isn't hard to see the parallels in our own time. However deeming the current geopolitical situation beyond my remit I chose instead to polemicise on the state of rampant consumerism that now pervades our society, no more so of course than at Christmas. I've ostensibly used two Dadaist techniques in the piece. Firstly I used the Lords prayer to create a cut up poem. I then took a recording of a recitation from Wells Cathedral and "cut up" the track accordingly. I then used these fragments to "over-paint" a recording from a supermarket checkout queue. From this I moved to perhaps the ultimate modern incarnation of the cut-up aesthetic, Granular synthesis. The granulation of another supermarket recording is overlaid with a reading of my cut up poem. Other supermarkets and belief systems are available.

By Daniel Williams. Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds