How Dada Poetry Can Spark Random Creativity and Insight

“Dada poetry” is a creative writing technique developed by poet Tristan Tzara in the 1920s.

The basic idea is to cut out words from a book, newspaper, or magazine, then randomly select each word to create a poem of your own.

The technique is completely random, so it leads to some really interesting and bizarre results.

Over the years, many writers and musicians have borrowed this “cut up” technique. In the 1960s, author William S. Burroughs used a similar method to write several experimental novels which became known as “The Cut-Up Trilogy.”

Introducing randomization into any creative process can often create results that you otherwise wouldn’t get through conscious thinking or planning.

One popular example is the American composer John Cage, who experimented a lot with what he called “chance music.” Chance music contains random elements that are completely beyond the artist’s control.

For example, Cage’s famous piece 4’33 is complete silence (in musical notation) – the basic idea being whatever sounds occur within those 4 minutes and 33 seconds become the musical piece. In this way, every performance is different by design.

In his book Silence: Lectures and Writings, Cage shares a variety of different methods and techniques that he applied to his compositions, including flipping coins to guide certain choices and decision-making.

Another interesting example of randomization as a creative method comes from composer Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards. This deck of 100+ cards can be applied to any creative process.

Each card is a random creative prompt, such as:

• “Use an old idea.”
• “State the problem in words as clearly as possible.”
• “Only one element of each kind.”
• “What would your closest friend do?”
• “What to increase? What to reduce?”
• “Are there sections? Consider transitions.”
• “Try faking it!”
• “Honour thy error as a hidden intention.”
• “Ask your body.”
• “Work at a different speed.”

Each of these creative suggestions can boost your creative muscles and lead to new ways of thinking. When trying to solve a creative problem, you pick up a random card from the deck and then apply that method to your current situation.

This Oblique Strategies method has been used in the past by famous bands and musicians such as David Bowie, Coldplay, and Phoenix (here‘s a free online version you can try for yourself).

Randomization can be applied in a variety of ways to expand your thinking and decision-making, even if it’s something simple like flipping a coin to decide what to eat for dinner or asking a friend to make a recommendation for you.

Dada Poetry: An Experiment

I’ve been interested in Dada poetry for many years but never got around to trying it.

A year ago I printed out an essay (Ernst Jünger’s On Pain – which I wrote an article about). After I finished reading it, I had the idea to cut up the printed paper and do something creative with it. I ended up cutting up the first 3 paragraphs, about 600 individual words, and then put them in a ziplock bag.

I kept the bag in a drawer for a year and never got around to actually creating the Dada poem (how many things do you tell yourself you’re going to do and never do?)

I re-discovered the bag recently and decided to make a small ritual out of it. I put on some ambient music, then carefully chose each word from the bag, recording the results.

Here’s a shortened version of what I ended up with.

Keep in mind that the ordering of words is completely random. I didn’t edit any of the grammar or syntax. The only thing I did was choose when each line begins and ends.

I also gave it a title.

That’s what I got!

Now – probably 99% of that sounds like utter nonsense – and it is. A lot of the lines resemble something you’d find in a koan or zen riddle.

However, if you look more carefully, and as you go through the ritual of choosing each word and each line, your mind starts to find connections and meaning in some of the phrases.

Our minds are pattern-finding machines, so even when you feed it some nonsense it’ll often try to find some meaning within the chaos – not unlike how we find meaning in dreams.

As I was creating the Dada poem, it was insightful to see how my mind responded to each new word. Sometimes I would think a line was going in a certain direction, but then the next word would completely change its meaning.

The whole process – both cutting the words and choosing them – can be very meditative and relaxing, especially if you set the environment right, play some music, or dim the lights.

This exercise is also an easy way to spark synchronicities and finding meaning in little coincidences (or random events). There were a couple times writing the Dada poem where I felt like I knew which word was coming next before I chose it – a sense of destiny.

William S. Burroughs also viewed his “cut up” method as deeply spiritual and magical. He’s been quoted as saying:

“I would say that my most interesting experience with the earlier techniques was the realization that when you make cut-ups you do not get simply random juxtapositions of words, that they do mean something, and often that these meanings refer to some future event. I’ve made many cut-ups and then later recognized that the cut-up referred to something that I read later in a newspaper or a book, or something that happened … Perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines the future leaks out.”

The may sound farfetched, but there’s no doubt that the “cut up” method can be a way to build a more meaningful life, even if we each interpret it in our own way.

Overall, this is a fun exercise to try. Think of it as a type of meditation. Choose a piece of writing that you already enjoy and consider making a short Dada poem out of it. You never know where it may lead you!

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