Using Nonsense to Make Sense of a World That Doesn't Make Sense: Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate
We've all encountered the experience of trying to overstand something when all we needed to do was understand it. Sometimes, that's the result of interpreting a piece of literature or witnessing a movie with a bizarre ending.
Other times, it feels like there's really nothing we can do to understand what's in front of us. Perhaps we're grappling with the supposed legitimacy of cryptocurrency or the purported efficacy of contemporary politics. In pursuits like this, is it even sensible to use logic in an effort to make sense of a world that, frankly, doesn't make sense? Is there a better way to approach this dilemma? According to Kurt Schwitters, the answer might just be gibberish.
Schwitters, a German artist whose primary focus revolved around painting and collage, produced Ursonate—a 45-minute gibberish "sound" poem with the intention that it be a guide to make sense of a world that doesn't make sense. I believe his concept has a few ideas going for it that make it philosophically viable, so in this article, I will highlight three qualitative elements of Ursonate that support it as a solution to sanity in what currently feels like a pretty insane world.
