Corpse Experiments Site

The Exquisite Corpse: Collaborative Experiments in Surrealist Automatism

A sheet of paper is folded into three or four sections. Methodology: Corpse Experiments

The first participant draws a head or writes a subject (e.g., noun) on the top section. The Exquisite Corpse is a parlor game adapted

The participant folds the paper to hide their contribution, leaving only small lines connecting to the next section. and Marcel Duchamp

The Exquisite Corpse is a parlor game adapted by the Surrealists in Paris around 1925, intended to act as a mechanism for collective creation. Founded by figures such as André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert, and Marcel Duchamp, the method was designed to produce surreal imagery and text that was impossible for a single artist to create alone. The technique is a visual or literary embodiment of Surrealist automatism —the suppression of conscious control over the creative process to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. 2. Origins and the "First" Corpse

The Exquisite Corpse remains a crucial experiment in collaborative art, challenging the notion of individual authorship and the constraints of rational thought. By embracing chance and fragmentation, it creates a "collective unconscious" on paper, resulting in images that are far stranger—and often more profound—than those produced individually. References MoMA - Make Your Own Exquisite Corpse Tate - Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Corpse) Academy of American Poets - Play Exquisite Corpse eScholarship - Exquisite Corpses Make Your Own Exquisite Corpse | Magazine - MoMA

The second participant adds a body or verb, again folding it to hide their contribution. Legs/Object: A third participant adds legs or an object.