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Automatism

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Automatism is not a pictorial movement; it is more of a philosophical movement defined by the designer .hl. that parts from the belief that sheer creativity belongs only to nature, hence human creativity parts from all which we learn to copy through attentive observation, intuition, and by being apprehensive to our unconscious. Therefore all means of expression are valid. It draws from all current aesthetic and artistic styles, as well as from universal archetypes of the collective unconscious that speak to us about our past, present and future, united in a single line of time whose duration is of an infinite moment.

Basic Principles: • Everything is rational. The irrational does not exist. • The unconscious prevails and dominates all. • Memorization carries secondary importance; instinct is primary. • Knowledge and information are the fundamental basis of creation. • Observations if the key element of design. (OR observation is the cornerstone of design) • There are no mistakes, only opportunities; the smallest mistake must become the premises of nay masterpiece.

Theories (as believed by automatists) Automatism is the reflection of the unconscious; it is the mirror within the individual. It is a form of expression that has always existed and for years has been erroneously viewed as a technique, when in it fact it is a movement in it of itself, which gives rise to other forms of expression such as surrealism. Andre Breton used the term merely as a descriptive form of surrealism, and not as a movement itself. Breton defined: 

"Surrealism is pure psychic automatism, through which one tries to explain either verbally, in the written form or in any other form how thought process functions.”

That is, a dictation of thought without the intervention of reason. Despite French author’s intent for surrealism to be fed by automatism, it developed in a different direction from its initial objective. Though in its core automatism is based on Freudian Theory, it is closer to Jung’s analytical psychology, given it does not base itself on dreams. Most surrealists became wrapped around recreating their own dreams and their recollection of them, which is contradictory to the movement’s original concept. In order to work around a dream one must count on recollection, memories, making it impossible for the unconscious to prevail. Automatism should require minimal planning; this is where automatism becomes surrealism’s rebellious son, of which it was initially the father, (OR this is where automatism is the rebellious son of surrealism, which initially was the father) etymologically speaking.

Costa Rica is where the International Automatist Movement is officially born. Its work consist in rethinking and reclaiming automatism’s role in the history of universal art through design. In automatism, aesthetics and execution come down to a secondary plane; concept is fundamental. For instance automatism can rise from a simple subject such as: A telephone conversation. For centuries humanity has been dependent upon having direct contact with its receptor through one of the 5 senses for means of communication. However, once the phone comes into play a door is opened for the honest unconscious expression of the individual to shine through. In a phone conversation an individual is consciously aware of the distinct senses it will need to use in order to formulate a logical conversation. If it is a direct conversation—depending on the facilities of each participant—language, hearing and sight will primarily intervene. Once eye contact is removed, the process drastically changes: seeing things versus imagining them two completely different things; it implies a conscious process versus an unconscious one. In a phone conversation the individual is consciously connected with its receiver through language, however, granted the visual barrier is out of reach, the individual is able to develop a myriad of tasks, some of which may be unconscious. Such that the imagination is left bare, paving the way for a sort of trance to take place: automatism. Once this porthole is opened the “Id” is left completely “bare;” the simplest lines jotted down on a piece of paper could transcribe an individual’s unconscious thoughts, desires, reveal fragments about their past or present, and their soul. Thus, the phone becomes a means that reveals the connections between the jotted lines and the speaker.

In practice, one may only extract the essence of the argument, because the execution of each piece of design would be limited in its complexity to the moments derived from a telephone conversation. Consequently, we had to find a parallel to produce similar results, this factor resulting in time. In automatism just as in the creation of musical pieces, a minimal amount of time is used to shape a basic composition, or what in music is popularly know as a jam session. The music’s base composition translates into sounds that reflect the artist’s feelings. By reducing its gestation time, the individual conscious thought is limited and the unconscious is invited to participate as the main protagonist in the work’s development, which can later be refined into harmony.

It also originated from reading techniques such as Roscharch, but automatism will fluctuate from reader to executer/reader. In the short story of modern art, diverse tendencies have reduced the time of gestation and with this bared the artists’ unconscious ego, as occurs in Happening, however in most cases the result has been abstract. In this sense, the internet becomes automatism’s greatest ally, by reducing in seconds the amount of time required to locate millions of words and images free of mental association and of logical interpretation. Writing a series of lines with the first words that pop into our brain, without trying to formulate them logically, takes something that to many would lack rational meaning, however in the mental process of language development, all words are symbolically associated and translated into images and vice versa. Consequently, the reading and interpretation of such lines through the use of psychoanalysis or with the aid of the artist himself would reveal information stored in the subconscious of the individual.

Design must be understood as a whole from which all begins; so that knowledge will be in charge of converting the individual’s unconscious thoughts into synonymous graphics. Any iconography that the individual produces will see itself enriched so far as its cognitive capacity increases. Through design exists the possibility of arriving at a more concise visual automatism, provided the Internet has given way for a faster and more efficient creative process, which is way contemporary works contain a greater degree of automatism than others.

In design virtuosity is transmuted into the knowledge or application of some type of software, this should be transferred to a secondary plane, to the learning level, where it becomes easily accessible to any human being. Certainly the best designer is not the one who perfectly uses informative software, but the one who applies his mind best at the time of creation. Today, automatism seeks to achieve the same with the designer’s work, claiming his work, which has been overshadowed by other pictorial manifestations. Collage could be considered a greater expressive medium for automatism, even more so than surrealism; becoming like design, a collection of images or photographs transformed into a more complex graphic piece, with the intervention of electronic means.

According to “automatists,” automatism is not necessarily the genesis of surrealism, nor of cubism, expressionism, nor mannerism, pop art, not even of Dadaism. Automatism is the genesis of the Universe, and all other movements are only a matter of form. Automatism has been the conceptual background of all that exists, so is design in all its forms: Plastic, Architecture, Furniture, etc. It is the order within the disorder; everything in nature we perceive as beauty, and how colors distribute throughout plants is the same way in which human beings and animals are grouped on Earth. No leaf of a plant that is more beautiful in its abstraction has been painted by hand, much less a zebra or anything naturally pre-existing. However, they are the consequence of an automatic/mathematic event, which allows for the making of what resides. Automatism also replants the concept of a masterpiece; parting from its origin in the Renaissance, when the crafter becomes recognized as an artist and his work qualifies is finally recognized as a masterpiece accordingly to his intellect and imagination. Unlike the modern concept, which includes parameters such as virtuosity, of which automatism is divorced. The use of collective symbols is a key element in automatism, since they can are representative of moods, sensibility or expressions associated with personal circumstances that act as mirrors for the designer. Its origins are of diminishing importance, copyrights; everything here is to convey what the unconscious says despite of its source or origin. Gaetan Gatian de Clerambault, who was the director of the Psychiatric Hospital in France, spoke of automatism before Breton, though he denied using it as a form of interpretation or reading for his patients. Breton said he found automatism more creative in the verb/audio form contrasted with the verb/visual. Design enables the opportunity to adopt a proposal that is consistent with that description.

MOAI, Automatism International Movement (Movimiento Automatista Internacional)


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