The Distribution of Ink-Printed Text Versus Hypertext :: Internet Net World Wide Web Media

The Distribution of Ink-Printed Text Versus Hypertext While browsing Radiohead's website (www.radiohead.com) one particular page of hypertext caught my eye. This page displayed was what looked to me like a scanned-in copy of ink-print text, which read: How To Construct a Dadaist Poem by Tristan Tzara. I had heard of Dadaism previous to this discovery, but hadn't the slightest idea about the man who had authored these simple instructions on how to construct a dadaist poem. So with the help of my mouse and keyboard I quickly erased the Radiohead URL (Internet address) and typed in that of a search engine called Hotbot (www.hotbot.com). After arriving at the homepage for Hotbot I typed my inquiry into the empty "search" box and the search engine immediately displayed a list of related homepages and topics on Tristan Tzara. I clicked on the first result entitled "Tzara" which led me to the homepage of The International Dada Archive. In reading-over the summary and history of the Dada artistic movement of the early twentieth century I began to see that many of its distinctive characteristics are the same characteristics found at the core of Radiohead's artistic movement; both groups, the Dadaists and Radiohead had/have an affinity for assaulting cultural values through live performances, and the distributing of leaflets, magazines, and newspapers. However, Radiohead has recently replaced the older method of distributing leaflets, magazines, and newspapers with the newer method of simply posting a website on the World Wide Web. Now, if an admirer or audience member wants to read Radiohead's poetry or view their latest artwork they only have to type Radiohead's URL (www.radiohead.com) into any browser and instantly it is delivered to the screen of their personal computer. The Dadaists and Radiohead both had/have an affinity for assaulting cultural values or in other words presenting their audience members with present-day cultural values in a way that made/makes those cultural values appear mundane. The Dadaists attacked cultural values through different types of live performances. "The real spirit of Dada was in events: cabaret performances, demonstrations, declarations, confrontations, the distribution of leaflets and of small magazines and newspapers... and actions which today we would call guerrilla theater." The Dadaists used a combination of live performance and the passing-out of ink-printed text on leaflets, magazines and newspapers to accomplish what they termed "...undermining and exposing what they saw as the stale cultural conventions of a decayed European Civilization..." (Shipe, International Dada Archive IDA).