Automatism is a surrealist technique involving spontaneous writing, drawing, or the like practiced without conscious aesthetic or moral self-censorship. Automatism in Surrealism has taken a many forms, from the automatic writing and drawing initially practiced by surrealists, to similar, or perhaps parallel phenomena, such and the non-idiomatic improvisation of free jazz .

Surrealist automatism is different from mediumistic automatism, from which the term was inspired. Ghosts, spirits or the like are not purported to be the source of surrealist automatic messages.

"Pure psychic automatism" was how André Breton, surrealism's founder, defined surrealism, and while the definition has proved capable of significant expansion, automatism remains of prime importance in the movement.

In 1919 Breton and Philippe Soupault wrote the first automatic book, Les Champs Magnétiques while The Automatic Message was one

In the 1940s and 1950s the Canadian group called Les Automatistes pursued creative work (chiefly painting) based on surrealist principles. These artists, led by Paul-Emile Borduas, sought to proclaim an entity of universal values and ethics proclaimed in their manifesto "Refus Global".

Some surrealists write automatic mathematics or equations.

Surautomatism

Some Romanian surrealists invented a number of surrealist techniques (such as cubomania, entopic graphomania, and the movement of liquid down a vertical surface) that purported to take automatism to an absurd point, and the name given, "surautomatism", implies that the methods "go beyond" automatism, but this position is controversial.

See also

• Surrealist techniques Automatism