Parlour Games
Delicious Demon Parlour Games are an interactive online technique for developing collaborative art, inspired by the original parlour games of the Surrealists. The writer André Breton along with many visual artists, including Max Ernst, Man Ray, Salvador Dali, and Joan Miro, started the artistic movement of Surrealism in Paris in the 1920's. Their goal was to have the unconscious express itself, and they used multiple techniques of displaying accidental art as a way to tap into the subconscious mind. Delicious Demon realized the potential the internet had for collaboration-- one method the Surrealists had used for creating accidental art, and so, we began to create these games back in 1999, starting with the Add-a-Line, including the Add-a-Definition a few years later. We hope you enjoy them and hope the Surrealists would have been proud!
Add-a-Line
One of the techniques for collaborative art the Surrealists used was called the cadavre exquis or the exquisite corpse (from the original writing, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau" or "The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine"). Poetic fragments were pieced together by multiple writers, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, then conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next writer to add to. Each person only saw a piece of what was written from the person before them. Add-a-Lines were inspired by these Surrealist exquisite corpses (with a few subtle differences). They began on the backs of placemats in suburban New Jersey diners and were transformed into this digital version in 1999.
Most Recently Added Line
t Stephen Fry was unable to talk, being a baby and all. But sson he grew out of that phase and
Most Recently Created Stories
| 1. How the Blueberry got its Name | ( 1 total post(s), last updated March 6, 2010 by cloud girl ) |
| 2. Blacktopped Infinity | ( 3 total post(s), last updated March 4, 2010 by Annie Nonnie Muss ) |
| 3. The Paraphraseinity in the exchange of Ideas between you the reader and I the writer. | ( 7 total post(s), last updated March 6, 2010 by woabagain ) |
Add-a-Definition
The Add-a-Definition originated from the boredom of the passengers of a 22 hour car ride straight from Miami to New York somewhere around the year 2003. Familiar with the Add-a-Line, we wanted to invent a similar game, but one that was verbal so the driver could play along as well. We went around in turn, each coming up with a word, the others each giving it a definition based on the word's sound. This online version was developed soon after, allowing us to record a whole new language based on the words we create and collaboratively define.
Most Recently Added Definitions
| 1. Insanity | A pathological condition wherein an individual repeats a behavior over and over despite that individual's belief that the behavior is meaningless, without profit and "fewtile" (see dictionary) |
| ( 1 total definition(s) for this word, this one added February 7, 2010 by apoetwtpotwiica ) | |
| 2. fewtility | The pointlessness of posting on a website where only two or three people have anything to say, and what they have to say is of little interest or importance. |
| ( 1 total definition(s) for this word, this one added February 7, 2010 by Joanne Wayward ) | |
| 3. efat | The delusion of genuine, real-world chubbos that their excess mass is but virtual |
| ( 2 total definition(s) for this word, this one added February 6, 2010 by apoetwtpotwiica ) |
Perhaps I passed this person on the street today;
I may never know, as it is likely I never will meet him.
Yet he will be vital to one of the most important
Parts of my life - that is, my death.
This is the person who will play the organ at my funeral.
It is ironic that we will never know each other because
At my momentous event he will add the glorious sounds
That will make it so much more than the disposal of a lifeless form.
more
Add-a-Definition
863 definitions from 304 termsMost Recent Definition
- Insanity
- noun, A pathological condition wherein an individual repeats a behavior over and over despite that individual's belief that the behavior is meaningless, without profit and "fewtile" (see dictionary)