Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original French term cadavre exquis), is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. "The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun." as in "The green duck sweetly sang the dreadful dirge.") or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.
Video Exquisite corpse
History
The technique was invented by surrealists and is similar to an old parlour game called consequences in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution. Surrealism principal founder André Breton reported that it started in fun, but became playful and eventually enriching. Breton said the diversion started about 1925, but Pierre Reverdy wrote that it started much earlier, at least before 1918.
In a variant now known as picture consequences, instead of sentences, portions of a person were drawn. Later the game was adapted to drawing and collage, producing a result similar to children's books in which the pages were cut into thirds, the top third pages showing the head of a person or animal, the middle third the torso, and the bottom third the legs, with children having the ability to "mix and match" by turning pages.
The name is derived from a phrase that resulted when Surrealists first played the game, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau." ("The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine.") André Breton writes that the game developed at the residence of friends in an old house at 54 rue du Château (no longer existing). In the beginning were Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert, Benjamin Péret, Pierre Reverdy, and André Breton. Other participants probably included Max Morise, Joan Miró, Man Ray, Simone Collinet, Tristan Tzara, Georges Hugnet, René Char, and Paul and Nusch Éluard.
Henry Miller often partook of the game to pass time in French cafés during the 1930s.
Maps Exquisite corpse
Modern examples
- The cut-up technique of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin was influenced by Surrealism.
- The Narrative Corpse (Gates of Heck, 1995) is a comic book chain-story by 69 all-star cartoonists edited by Art Spiegelman.
- Naked Came the Manatee (Putnam, 1996) is a mystery thriller parody novel. Each of its thirteen chapters was written, in sequence, by a different Florida writer, beginning with Dave Barry and ending with Carl Hiaasen.
- A song in the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch is entitled "Exquisite Corpse".
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2000 film Mysterious Object at Noon uses this technique with a mixture of documentary and fictional film.
- Exquisite Corpse is the name of a literary magazine founded in 1983 (later in online version from 1999) published by Andre Codrescu.
- The Exquisite Corpse Project is a 2012 feature-length comedy written using the exquisite corpse technique.
- George Watsky's 2016 album, x Infinity, features a song titled "Exquisite Corpse" using this technique featuring verses by several artists.
- A Rick and Morty 2017 trailer for season 3 is titled "Exquisite Corpse" and features a multiple minute long sequence to the song "Thursday in the Danger Room" from the album Run the Jewels 3 by Run the Jewels.
- The Exquisite Corpse Adventure commissioned by the Library of Congress using well-known children's authors and illustrators.
- The Breaking Boredom Project in graphic design, Cairo (2008)
- Exquisite Fruit is a variant conceived by members of the National Puzzlers' League in which a round of trivia questions are sequentially written by players, given an answer provided by each player at the start, and the resulting question posed to another player at the end.
- Warpaint_(band) named their debut EP "Exquisite Corpse" because of their collaborative songwriting style
See also
- Photoshop tennis
- Comic jam
- Round-robin story
Notes
External links
- Media related to Cadavre exquis at Wikimedia Commons
- Exquisite Corpse (2006-2014), a collaborative digital illustration by artists James apRoberts and Brian Christopher
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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