ALFRED
JARRY
ONE DIRECTION
ONE DIRECTION
Finished 3rd in 2010
X-Factor
Managed by Simon
Cowell
Huffington Post
named 2012 ‘The
Year of One
Direction’
ONE DIRECTION
IMPORTANT FACTS
Zayn has a tattoo on
his chest which says
his Grandfathers
name, in Arabic.
Liam has a fear of
spoons.
If Liam wasn't in the
band he would work
in a factory building
airplanes.
ONE DIRECTION
IMPORTANT FACTS
Harry said "One day I
would love to go to
New Zealand, I've
always wanted to go
there!"
Liam can play a bit of
piano and a bit of
guitar.
When Harry was
younger he used to
write on his toast with
food colouring.
ONE DIRECTION
IMPORTANT FACTS
Zayn likes girls who are
intelligent.
Louis like it when girls
wear glasses, real or not.
Harry and Louis first met
in the toilets at X Factor.
Niall likes it when girls
can put on different
accents and can speak
different languages.
• 1873 - BornAlfred Jarry
September 8th (feast
of the Nativity of the
Holy Virgin)
• 1888-91 Enters the
Rennes lyceé,
becomes friends with
Henri Morin
• 1890 - First
performances of the
‘Théâtre des
Phynances’ at the
FELIX HERBERT
• “An extremely slow teacher who
wastes an enormous amount of
time and is unable to complete
the syllabus... His results are
extremely feeble... his lessons
are ill-prepared, particularly the
practical experiments, which
are marred by repeated
accidents” - Principal’s report
Alfred Jarry
• 1891 - moves to Paris
• First Lodging - Dead
Man’s Calvary
• 1894 - Publication of
first book “Les Minutes
De Sable Memorial”
• 1895 - In Military
Service - drinks acid
• 1897 - Publishes ‘Days
and Nights’
Alfred Jarry
• 1896 - First performance of Ubu Roi
• 1899 - Completes Ubu cycle and
begins the Almanacs
• 1902 - Le Surmale
• 1907 - Dies
• 1911 - Gestes and Opinions Du
Doctor Faustroll, ‘Pataphysicien
Letter to Lugné Poe (1896)
• Mask for the principal
character
• Cardboard Horse’s head
• One single set or plain
backdrop
• Abolition of Crowds
• Use of a special accent
• Costumes ‘as divorced as
far as possible from local
colour or chronology’.
REDUCTIONS
REDUCTIONS
M. Herbert
Pere Hebe
Pere Ubu
Ubu - The
Performance
• Had two performances
- one a dress rehearsal
• Music by Claude
Terrasse and his
mother
• Initial address by Jarry
Ubu - The
Performance
• And we also have the ideal setting, for just as a
play can be set in Eternity by, say, letting people
fire revolvers in the year one thousand or
thereabouts, so you will see doors opening onto
snow covered plains under blue skies,
mantlepieces with clocks on them swinging open
to turn into doorways, and palm trees flourishing
at the foot of beds so that little elephants
perching on bookshelves can graze on them...
And the action, which is about to start, takes
place in Poland, that is to say, nowhere.
Jarry on Theatre
• I intended when the curtain went up that
the scene should confront the public
like the exaggerating mirror in the
stories of Madame de Beaumont, in
which the depraved saw themselves
with dragon’s bodies or bull’s horns, or
whatever corresponded to their
particular vice.
I
PREDICT
A
RIOT
• On the opening night the play goes well
up till an actor pretends to be a prison
door...
• “The Public, thinking that the joke had
gone on long enough, began to howl, a
tempest broke out on all sides, with
shouts, yells, insults, accompanied by a
broadside of whistles and a thousand
other sorts of noise... even though I
have played other avant-garde parts
that have been poorly received, I have
never had such a feeling that the public
had plainly just had enough. Femin
I PREDICT A RIOT
• On the second night, the performance
is halted at the first line...
• “It is a filthy hoax which deserves only
contemptuous silence... this is the
beginning of the end. For too long now
these pranksters have laughed at us.
enough is enough (Le Temps, Dec 14
1896)
Ubu Roi 1896
I PREDICT A RIOT
• “In spite of the late hour I have just
taken a shower. An essential purgative
measure after such a spectacle. Oh my
head! My head!” (L’ Évenement
December 11 1896)
• “Stupidity has its limits, the indecency of
these jokes cannot go unchecked...
spoiled children and underhand
butchers, their empty brains full of
dreams, acclaimed by hypocrites and
cowards.” (La Critique December 20
SO... Why the riot?
• “ ...This performance resembled more a
sort of deliverance... for the past few
years this abstract and impersonal
tyrant, this literary Ubu, terrorist of
snobs, has become a dictator who has
subsequently turned on the public. But
he overestimated its complaisance and
counted too much on its docility. The
public became angry, and I am
delighted to have been present at its
revolt.” (Le Figaro, December 11th and
Jarry has the final
word...
• It would have been easy to alter Ubu to
suit the taste of the Paris public by
making the following minor changes:
the opening word would have been
Blast (or Blastrr), the unspeakable
brush would have been turned into a
pretty girl going to bed, the army
uniforms would have been First Empire
style, Ubu would have been knighted by
the Czar... but in that case it would have
been filthier. Jarry: Theatre Questions
Belgrade 1964
‘PATAPHYSICS
Jean-Pierre Brisset
•
•
•
In 1871 he published La natation ou l’art de
nager appris seul en moins d’une heure
(Learning the art of swimming alone in less
than an hour)
1872 - becomes Stationmaster at Angers
Undertook his major philosophical work,
which consisted in spreading his theory
that Man's origins were in the water, and
He was descended from Frogs. He
supported his contention by comparing the
French and frog languages (like
"logement"= dwelling, comes from "l'eau" =
water).
Jean-Pierre Brisset
•
In 1912, novelist Jules Romains,
who had got his hands on a copy
of God's Mystery and The Human
Origins, set up, with the help of a
few fellow hoaxers, a rigged
election for a "Prince of Thinkers".
unsurprisingly, Brisset got elected.
The Election Committee then
called him to Paris in 1913, where
he was received and acclaimed
with great pomp. He partook in
several ceremonies and a
banquet, uttering emotional words
of thanks for this unexpected late
recognition of his work.
C. V. Boys
•
•
•
Soap Bubbles: Their
Colours and the
Forces Which Mould
Them (1890)
Discusses the concept
of ‘infra - thin’
A pal of Doctor
Faustroll
‘Pataphysics
• ‘Pataphysics deals with "the laws which
govern exceptions and will explain the
universe supplementary to this one“
• In 'pataphysics, every event in the universe
is accepted as an extraordinary event.
• "If you let a coin fall and it falls, the next time
it is just by an infinite coincidence that it will
fall again the same way; hundreds of other
coins on other hands will follow this pattern
in an infinitely unimaginable fashion".
‘Pataphysics
• After his death, Pablo Picasso, fascinated with
Jarry, acquired his pistol and wore it on his
nocturnal expeditions in Paris, and later bought
many of his manuscripts as well as executing a
fine drawing of him
• "the science of imaginary solutions, which
symbolically attributes the properties of objects,
described by their virtuality, to their lineaments"
(Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, II,
viii). Raymond Queneau has described
'pataphysics as resting "on the truth of
contradictions and exceptions."
‘Pataphysics
• works within the 'pataphysical tradition tend to
focus on the processes of their creation, and
elements of chance or arbitrary choices are
frequently key in those processes. Select
pieces from Marcel Duchamp and John Cage
characterize this
• Perhaps the most famous mention of
'pataphysics remains the Beatles' 1969 song
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer," from Abbey Road,
which mentions Joan, a student who "was
quizzical/studied 'pataphysical science in the
home.’
Pataphor (noun)
• 1. An extended metaphor that creates
its own context
• 2. That which occurs when a lizard’s tail
has grown so long it breaks off and
grows a new lizard.
PHYSICS
METAPHYSIC
S
‘PATAPHYSIC
S
How the Pataphysical Calendar works
The Pataphysical Calendar is a rearrangement of the Gregorian
year calendar. The Pataphysical Era begins on September 8th,
1873, Jarry's birthday, and that date begins the Pataphysical
year. The year is divided into thirteen months of 28 or 29 days
each. Each day has a name (like a traditional French calendar
of saints), always obscure and usually indecent. Each month
begins with a Sunday, and has a Friday the 13th. Of course, the
only way to do this is to intercalate days into the week, so that
days of the Pataphysical week do NOT correspond to the days
of the week in the Gregorian calendar. Since 13 x 28 is 364,
there must be an intercalary day (two in a leap year) which is
NOT a day of the Pataphysical week.
Each month has a 29th day, called a Hunyadi (ün-ya-DEE) - the name of a Hungarian patriot or
a Hungarian laxative, depending on who you read. The Hunyadis are IMAGINARY days, with
one exception (two in leap years). The non-imaginary Hunyadis are called "Hunyadi gras", Fat
Hunyadi, like Mardi Gras I guess. The 29th of the month of Gidouille (= 13 July) is the annual
Absolu
September 8 to October 5
1. Nativity of Alfred Jarry
2. Abolition of St. Ptyx, silentiare
3. St. Phénix, solipsist and S. Hyx, factotum
4. St. Lucien of Samoaste, voyager
5. St. Bardamu, voyager
6. St. Vérola, social assistant
7. St. Alambic, abstracteur
8. Absinthe, predicesor of S. Alfred
9. Descent of the S. Spirit de Vin
10. Dilution
11. St. Purée, sportswoman
12. Vide
13. St. Cantarel, illuminator
14. St. Sophrotatos the Armenian, pataphysicist
15. Ethernity
16. St. Ibicrate the Geometer, pataphysicist
17. Céphalorgie
18. Flutes of Pan
19. Sts. Grues, ophiophiles
20. St. Mélusine, souillarde de cuisine
21. St. Venceslas, duke
22. Emmanuel Dieu
23. St. Varia-Miriam, amphibian
24. Sts. Rakirs and Rastrons, porkchop holders
25. Nativity of St. Magnificence Opach
26. St. Joseb, nataire à la mode de Bretagne
27. Sts. Gigolette and Gaufrette, dogaresses
28. Xylostomie
29. Le Jet Musical
Le Collége de ‘Pataphysique
• 22 Palotin 75 EP: Foundation of the
College
• 21 Palotin 84: Sandomir makes the
gesture of dying
• 1 Jan 2000: Dissocultation of the
College. Lutembi is new Vice-Curator
OuLiPo: Brief History
Founder:
Francois Le Lionnais
First meeting:
November 1960 (then still called S.L.E., meaning “seminar of experimental literature”)
S.L.E. renamed Oulipo on December 19, 1960
Activities:
composition of poems
1973:
Publication of La Littérature potentielle 
Oulipo began to affirm itself openly
Oulipo: definition of the groups’
works
Formal innovation
Raymond Queneau:
Potential literature is “the search for new forms
and structures that may be used by writers in
any way they see fit.”
François Le Lionnais:
“The Oulipo’s goal is to discover new structures
and to furnish for each structure a small number
of examples.”
OuLiPo: seminal
work
Raymond Queneau is known to have
nourished the directed the evolution of the
group.
One of the exemplary works of the group is
by him:
Cent Mille Milliards de poèmes
[a hundred thousand billion poems]
A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems
“Potential” literature
If one spends 1 minute to read 1 sonnet, 8
hours a day, 200 days per year, it would take
more than a million centuries to finish the text.
…towards technical superiority
http://www.bevrowe.info/Queneau/Quenea
uRandom_v5.html
A VOID
GEORGE PEREC
• A Void's plot follows a group of individuals
searching for a missing companion, Anton Vowl.
Characters within A Void eventually figure out
the missing letter but find discussion of it
hazardous, as according to its author's
constraint, no word containing the letter "E" may
occur, and any who try risk fatal injury.
A VOID
Once upon a midnight dreary,
while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious
volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping,
suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping,
rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered,
`tapping at my chamber door Only this, and nothing more.'
Twas upon a midnight
tristful I sat poring, wan
and wistful,
Through many a quaint
and curious list full of my
consorts slain –
I sat nodding, almost
napping, till I caught a
sound of tapping,
As of spirits softly
rapping, rapping at my
door in vain….
OuLiPo:
Methods/Procedures
• Combinatory Literature
THREE Oulipian vocations:
1)The search for new structures (undoing
old norms)
2)Research into methods of automatic
transformation
3)Transposition of concepts in mathematics
into word games
OuLiPo: Oulipism
Oulipeme
A text produced by the Oulipo
Oulipism / an Oulipist work
A text written, even if pre-Oulipo, in the
style of an Oulipeme[Gerard Genette, Palimpsests, p. 39]
e.g. Apollinaire’s Calligrammes
e.g. Zimmerman Nowacek’s Life in the Garden (a deck of
stories), 1999
PLAGIARISM BY
ANTICIPATION
Symbolism
Franz von Stuck
The Sin
1893
oil on canvas
Odilon Redon
The Cyclops
1898
oil on canvas
2 ft. 1 in. x 1 ft. 8 in.
Henri Rousseau
The Sleeping Gypsy
1897
oil on canvas
4 ft. 3 in. 6 ft. 7 in.
MARCEL
DUCHAMP
Futurism
• Futurism emphasized creating a manifesto as
a starting point.
• The first futurist manifesto is by Fillippo
Tommaso Marinetti, a wealthy poet with a
flamboyant personal style . It appears in Le
Figaro, February 1909
• Marinetti lives in Paris from 1893 to 1896 and
is associated with circles that include Jarry.
This is when he is introduced to the principles
of free verse.
Intonation Instruments 1913
The Art of Noise
Dada
• Dada is a movement, not a style.
• It began as a reaction to middle-class
values, and the insanity of WWI.
• It began as a literary movement, but
soon included the other arts.
• It is meant to shock, and resulted in
works that are irrational,
confrontational, and even absurd.
Dada
• Dada is based on chance, and not
reason or emotion like the art styles that
came before it.
• Dada is anti-art, anti-beauty, anti-form,
and anti-traditional.
• Duchamp became the unofficial leader
of Dada in the visual arts.
• His work provokes the viewer to ask the
question: “what is art?”.
Nude Descending
Staircase, Cubism, 1912
Bicycle Wheel, Dada,
1913
Readymade
• An industrial, mass
produced object
that is exhibited as
art.
• It is not a new
object but on for
which a new idea
has been created.
• According to
Duchamp’s theory
an artist needed
to do two things
to an object in
order to make art.
1. Change its
context.
2. Displace its
function.
• Duchamp said he
created it for his own
amusement.
• It is art that moves.
• It is also interactive.
• It is similar to objects
used to demonstrate
laws of physics:
1. angular momentum
2. Centrifugal force
Fountain, 1917
• The subject is really
Aesthetics.
• Aesthetics is the
philosophy of art and
beauty.
• Duchamp wants the
viewer to look at it and
consider what art really
is.
L.H.O.O.Q ,1919
•Pronounced in
French the title of
the work
phonetically makes
a joke out of Da
Vinci’s
masterpiece.
André Breton
Performing Far-Sighted Manifesto
Translation of sign: “In order for you to like
something it is necessary for you to have seen
and understood it a long time ago, you bunch of
idiots.”
1920
André Breton, Valentine Hugo,
Greta Knutson, Tristan Tzara
Exquisite Corpse
ca. 1930
ink on paper
9 1/4 x 12 1/4 in.
Magritte, Treachery of Images, 1928-29.
SURREALISM
Most Dada artists joined the Surrealist movement
as well
Included many similar ideas -used Dada techniques
to “release the unconscious”
Exploration of ways to express in art the world of
dreams and the unconscious
Inspired by Freud and Jung - interested in the
nature of dreams
In dreams, people moved beyond the constraints of
society
Artists’ role: to bring inner and outer reality together
Two forms of Surrealism:
Biomorphic (interested in life forms): Joan Miro
Naturalistic (recognizable scenes of nightmare or
dream images): Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali
Dali, The Crucifixion, 1958.
SURREALISM
A style of art and literature developed principally in
the 20th century, in which fantastic visual imagery
from the subconscious mind is used with no
intention of making the artwork logically
comprehensible.
Involves fantasy & dreams
Is illogical
Stresses the subconscious
Automatism – to allow your subconscious mind to
take over in your art.
Demented sense of humor
1924 – 1950s (between World Wars I & II)
Europe (especially France and Spain)
Founded in 1924 by poet and critic Andre Breton
who published The Surrealist Manifesto: join the
world of fantasy to the everyday rational world in “an
absolute reality, a surreality.” Breton adapted the
theories of Sigmund Freud- dream analysis the
unconscious is the wellspring of the imagination.
Magritte, Time Transfixed, 1938.
Rene Magritte
Rene Magritte
(1898-1967)
Mother committed suicide when
Magritte was 14
Known for placing realistic
objects together in absurd
combinations
Rene Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964.
Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali,
Cannibalism in
Autumn,
1926-27.
Joan Miro
Joan Miró, A Dew Drop Falling from a Bird's Wing Wakes Rosalie, who Has
Been Asleep in the Shadow of a Spider's Web. 1939.
Max Ernst
Veritable Portrait of
M. Ubu