1] The Exquisite Corpse:
a] Each of a group of participants in turn adds an assigned part of speech without knowing the contributions of the others, to compose a sentence, for example in the form "The [adjective] [noun] [verb] the [adjective] [noun]."
b] Each participant in turn writes two lines of a poem, then folds down the page hiding all but the single last line added before passing it to the next contributor. In email form, after settling on an order, each contributor saves on his own computer his two-line addition to the one line sent him, but mails only his last line to the next participant; at the conclusion all participants email their fragments to one person who assembles and distributes the completed work.
c] A blank page is folded to form four vertical segments. The first participant draws a head in the first [top] segment, then folds down the paper so that the second participant sees only the line segments which enter the second segment. He/she continues these lines and draws an upper body segment, folds over and covers the drawing except for the lines which extend into the third segment, and passes to the third participant who does the lower body, covers and passes to the fourth participant who does the feet. If three participants fold the paper in thirds.
Suggested reading:
"Surrealist Games" by Alistair Brotchie
A few examples, and reference to other surrealist games,
can be found in "Surrealist Art" by Sarane Alexandrian, and "The Real World
of the Surrealists" by Malcolm Haslam
Web resources can be found at Dada
and Surreal Sources and at Algorithmic
Text
Assignment #1: The Inexpressible
Assignment #5: Etudes: Algorithms of negation, elision, and substitution
Assignment
#7: Automatic Writing
shmoetry
abandon prose all ye who enter here