Dada was an art movement that put, on the map, the idea that art is a tool, mechanism, macromechanism, a technological entity, for the preventing of senseless mass slaughter on battlefields. Now, one hundred years later, in the future year of 2014, we will revisit this idea in a thousand and one mostly dumb ways. Dumb may become an officially recognized critical category among Art Historians. Why did I capitalize that? I really like the way Germans capitalize all nouns.

Art as technology for preventing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields is not high tech. From abacus to the Internet took, what, 5000 years? I am impatient. I want Art, no, art, capitalizing on a keyboard is just such a pain in the neck, no, ass, to become high tech now, NOW! Calm down, buddy. Okay.

One day art as moral technology will be user friendly. Dude comes to the breakfast table, says good morning darling, drinks coffee and reads the newspaper. Will there still be newpapers when art becomes effective in preventing senseless mass slaughter? He reads about some senseless mass slaughter in, oh, say Africa. Senseless mass slaughter will probably continue in Africa farther into the future than anywhere else. Holy shit, he says, there is yet another case of senseless mass slaughter in Africa! This is a job for Art Man!

Well, don't hurt yourself, dear, his wife says. I will be carefull, he says. He jumps into a telephone booth which, of course, is not really a telephone booth, it is just called that. For centuries after the disappearance of telephone booths, it will be called that. He may not even leave home. He may not even leave his chair at the breakfast table.

Art at this time in the future, has developed into a high technology of senseless mass slaughter prevention. It also prevents senseless non-mass slaughter, sensible non-mass slaughter, etc. How does it do this? The art handbook explains both the theory and practice. The theory is based on Dracula. Dracula avoids the light. Art sheds light. When art increases the light indefinitely, there comes a point at which sinners feel uncomfortable about committing sins. This is called the tipping point. Sin requires a minimum of light shed upon it to flourish, just the opposite of green plants. Sin is a fungus, but not a morel.

The theory of art as moral technology was formulated in the early 21st century by a 60 yr old ne'er-do-well named Charles Barry Williams, sometime before he died painlessly in his sleep at a very advanced age. The key word in the theory is cultural mass.

CULTURAL MASS
Cultural Mass is the sum total of artists, genres, media, output, rate of output, that is focussed on manipulating the cultural climate in such a way as to make a particular sinner, say a senseless mass slaughterer, feel so uncomfortable committing his own particular brand of sin, that he develops inhibitions strong enough to prevent him from committing it. Cultural Mass is the vehicle of cultural climate change. Cultural mass is measured in three major ways: quanity, quality and diversity.

QUANTITY
Increase indefinitely the number of artists focussing on making the particular type of sinner feel uncomfortable. Increase indefinitely the number of individuals pieces of art, poetry, fiction, music etc., produced per unit of time. Increase indefinitely the size and flashiness of the pieces. Increase indefinitely the dispersal of the pieces so that the sinner gets the impression of being surrounded, or followed, that this "thing" is everywhere he(male=neuter) goes. Encourage the production and proliferation of low quality art because this is the easiest.

QUALITY
Increase the number of "great" pieces produced per unit of time.

DIVERSITY
Make it very difficult for observers of a particular project of moral technology to say "It all looks the same!" Confuse them, if neccessary.

To be continued