Unconscious.

Bird brings up the idea of incorporating psychology into artwork. This did not necessarily start with surrealism artwork, but is most associated with the Surrealists. To think in a historical context, at this point in time after WWI, humans had to question their own future and their own capabilities. It was at this time that Sigmund Freud released his ideas of the unconscious, where repressed desires and anxieties of people existed in a deep part of the mind. These desires were repressed as not socially acceptable, and could be revealed through one's dreams. Surrealists worked to show these anxieties, desires, and fetishes through their artwork in a variety of methods. I would suggest these methods to my students who were interested in attempting to reveal their unconscious.

For example, Dalí developed his "paranoiac-critical method" in which he uses ambiguity and obscure shapes to morph two images into one, making something familiar yet unknown, like the unconscious. Masson also said that, "the doodle will set you free" in which he did not think but automatically drew on his paper as a way to express his unconscious. He then developed these. Doodles into more identifiable shapes. Ernst used the symbol of a dark forest to represent their unconscious as something dark and mysterious, but a place where magical things could happen. Furthermore he developed the technique of scraping pigment away from the surface in order to represent the act of digging away through one's own layers of the mind. Other surrealist artists would wander through flee markets and wait until an object "spoke to them" for a reason that was unclear. These objects could be altered to represent there anxiety and desires that were brought out from they unconscious.

My first surrealism unit in 10th grade was when I got excited about art because it was the first time content was introduced. Our teacher passed out a worksheet with questions such as, "What are your fears? What do your nightmares look like? In another life, what would your dreams be?" I was SO excited to get to work with content about myself that was relevant, and use new techniques such as juxtaposition or levitation thorough the process. It was such a great introduction to content with freedom in how you drew it to where it was exciting without Bering intimidating. It is something I would love to start out doing with my students, and get them comfortable with the idea of expressing themselves and doing so cathartically.