Disappearing Through the Skylight

Background Information

Ⅰ. About the Author

Osborne Bennet Hardison Jr. Born in San Diego, California in 1928. He was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of Wisconsin. He is a professor of English, a Shakespeare scholar and an amateur physicist. He wrote numerous books and articles, as well as poetry and book reviews. His book, Disappearing Through the Skylight, which also has a sub-title, “Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century”, presents his deep contemplation of the change in modern culture brought about by modern science and technology.

Ⅱ. Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) :Spanish painter and sculptor, who worked and lived most of adult life in France. He was the leader of the School of Paris and is generally considered in his technical virtuosity, enormous versatility and incredible originality and prolificacy to have been the foremost figure in 20th century art. He demonstrated uncanny artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence; during the first decade of the 20th century his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas.

Ⅲ. Dada

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, Dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchist in nature. By 1924 in Paris, Dada was melding into surrealism, and artists had gone on to other ideas and movements, including surrealism, social realism and other forms of modernism. Some theorists argue that Dada was actually the beginning of postmodern art.

Ⅳ. Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia (1879–1953) A French painter, poet, and typographer, associated with Cubism, Abstract art, Dada and Surrealism. After working in an impressionist style, he was influenced by Cubism and later was one of the original exponents of Dada in Europe and the United States.

Ⅳ. Francis Picabia

The Dance at the Spring Star Dancer on a Transatlantic Steamer

Ⅴ. Game Theory

Game theory is a mathematical theory of transactions developed by John Von Neumann. He called this theory, which has important applications in economics, diplomacy, and national defense, “game theory”. Game theory is mainly used in economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic and biology. The subject first addressed zero-sum games, such that one person's gains exactly equal net losses of the other participant(s). Today, however, game theory applies to a wide range of class relations, and has developed into an umbrella term for the logical side of science, to include both human and non-humans, like computers.

Ⅵ. Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.