Dada manifesto

     Hugo Ball's description of dada is very optimistic.  He believes in it, saying that today nobody knows what it is, but tomorrow everyone will be talking about it in Switzerland.  Dada isn't just a local or temporary movement, but an international one that will continue forever.  Ball says that dada is first a word, and that word is what became a movement.  He prefaces other words with 'dada' to show that everything can be dada, even nonsense words that people make up.  Creating your own words is especially important to ball, as he says that "I don't want words that other people have invented."  This seems like a way of saying that dada art should be unlike everything else, even though it can be influenced and reference anything and everything, whether or not it exists yet.
     Tzara's view of the word dada is that it is meaningless.  That opinion is the opposite of Ball, who believed that the word dada meant everything.  It is interesting though, that Ball said in his essay that made up words were central to dada, and Tzara says that they are useless, but writes nonsensical words in his manifesto, such as crystalbluffmadonna and boomboom.  Either this word means something specific to Tzara, or they both share that opinion of words.
     Tzara says that the dada movement was born out of a need for independence and a dislike of togetherness.  He doesn't think that dada artists fit in with any style, as they see their art as protesting rather than interpreting.  He wants art that defies logic and are "beyond understanding," similar to Ball's ideas of newly invented words.  Tzara seems to lay out more clearly the goals of a dada artists, how they differ from the more popular styles, and how they view criticism and praise.  His manifesto is just that: a manifesto, while Ball's is more of a rant on his interpretation of the manifesto.  Both give a somewhat vague idea of what dada is, but it seems like that's the point.  Using the rough outline of the main principles, it's up to the artist to create his own version of dada