Dada

Dada –

Dada was a movement that began in the 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland at a building named Cabaret Voltaire. It all started as a reaction to the World War I because they thought that being nationalism and rationalism had started everything.  The movement then focused on artistic and literary. This movement was highly effected by the ideas from Cubism, Futurism, constructivism and lastly, Expressionism.   As explained by many, Dada was a lot of things but mainly it was an anti-war movement in both Europe and New – York.  Dadaists

The Cabaret Voltaire was founded by a Romanian poet Tristan Tzara and Jean Arp, the place was a night club and also an art centre where one could exhibit his work of such poetry, music, readings and dance.

The word “Dada” was chosen blindly from a German – French dictionary that means nothing else but “Hobby horse” when translated to French.  It was chosen by Richard Huelsenbeck that was a painter and Hugo Ball that was also a painter and a musician.

This image collage was created by Hannah Hoch that is explaining the attitude of Dada towards the war. As one can see, this image has a lot of other images that is considered being a collage and this shows that there is massive chaos  and that the war is foolish and destroying the humanity.

There were many more artists such as John Heartfield , Kurt Schwitters , Max Ernst etc..

Max Ernst –

Max Ernst was born in Germany and he was inspirited mostly by his father that was deaf. His father was a teacher and he was the first person to introduce him to painting at a very young age. Max was very brave in philosophy infect he attended the University of Bonn but he dropped out because he preferred to study on art.  During the world war I Ernst was forced to join the army where he learnt a lot about war. He got traumatized and this affected his way of art thinking and this strongly shows in his art works.

A collage that was done by the Dadaist Max Ernst shows an aircraft with two human arms flying very low in an open area.  This collage had more than one idea and was called the murdering airplane/ half machine half bad angel.

One can also see that on the right hand side two soldiers are carrying an injured soldier.

References - 

arthistoryarchive. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2015, from http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/dada/arthistory_dada.html

artyfactory. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2015, from http://www.artyfactory.org/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm

max-ernst. (n.d.). Retrieved 2015 December, from http://www.max-ernst.com/

theartstory. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2015, from http://www.theartstory.org/movement-dada.htm

Computing Device History

Mechanical Calculator -

The first mechanical calculator was designed by the mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642. The mechanical calculator is named as "The Pascaline" ,  therefore , before that name was chosen , the calculator was firstly named as "The Arithmetic machine" and after as the "Pascal's calculator". This machine was capable of adding and subtracting two numbers and then displays the final answer on the same dials that you use to insert the numbers.

Blaise Pascal

Pascaline

Before the official release , Pascal has released 50 prototypes to make sure that it will be fully functional. The first machine was owned by Pierre Seguir which right after , Pascal launched 20 more machines which he always changed to make it better.

Four of these Pascalines are held in a museum in Paris.

The main principle of how the machine works is still currently with us and we use it in our cars odometers and our old water/electricity meters. Basically , the machine has multiple gears with then teeth. When the first gear makes one rotation (rotates all the way touching all then teeth) this will rotate the second gear and eventually the number showing will change. This principle keeps repeating itself but instead of rotating just once , the second will rotate 10 times to make it a hundred. In order to work another sum , one will have to reset the system by putting all entries on the number 9 and then go back tot he first entry and put it on the number 1 and eventually all entries will turn to 0.

The interior of the machine

In order for the system to subtract , one had to use the"9's compliment" because the machine dials only rotate in a clockwise direction .



References -

Brittanica. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/technology/Pascaline

Youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h71HAJWnVU

History of Graphic design

In the early years they used to communicate with designs that they drew on cave walls. Cave paintings are believed to have been drawn 40,000 years ago. Drawings where made by craving on the walls and these are called Petroglyphs. These are considered to be graphic designs because they are delivering a message to the viewer.

North America Petroglyph

The first person to get called a Graphic Designer was an American man that worked on designing books , lettering, typography and calligraphy. His name was William Addison Dwiggins and in 1922 he managed to obtain the very first ever title for one to have as a Graphic Designer. Graphic design still existed before he was awarded this title.

Wiggins has created two typefaces that we still use and these are Electra and Caledonia. He was a really brave person with many skills and he wanted to be remembered for his type designs. Wiggins died on Christmas day in 1956.

We live in a graphic design environment that wherever we touch or see means something or tries to persuade us to do something. Graphic design has a huge impact in our lives without us noticing since this has become part of us. Also , graphic design keeps changing the way it used to a more technological world.

Graphic design is currently very popular in Logos , in fact when someone sees a logo , spontaneously will name the company of that particular logo. Graphic design is also very popular when coming to advertise - such as : Billboards , wallpapers , posters etc.. Also , a very high impact is that of graphic tattoo's that is increasing in it's popularity year by year.

Graphic design tattoo

Logos

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Another few examples of how we depend on graphic designs are Ideograms * that we see everyday in our daily routine lives

*pictographs are images that represents a meaning that us human beings have been seeing from a young age and got thought their meaning. i.e . A simple rounded shape with the mark 70 on it would mean nothing for someone who never saw it before but in fact this means that the speed limit is that of 70km/h.

Signs

Reference -

design history. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2015, from http://www.designishistory.com/1850/wa-dwiggins/

tattoodo. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2015, from http://blog.tattoodo.com/2014/06/30-best-graphic-tattoo-artists/