Aerography — A technique in which a 3-dimensional object is used as a stencil with spraypainting.
Collage — The assemblage of different forms creating a new whole. For example, an artistic collage work may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, photographs,etc., glued to a solid support or canvas.
Cut-up technique — A literary form or method in which a text is cut up at random and rearranged to create a new text.
Echo poem — poem is composed by one or more persons, working together in a process as follows.The first "stanza" of the poem is written on the left-hand column of a piece of paper divided into two columns. Then the "opposite", or 'echo', of the first stanza, in whatever sense is appropriate to the poem, is composed in the right-hand column of the page. The writing is done automatically and often the "opposite" stanza is composed of a phonetic correspondence to the first stanza.
For a longer work, the third stanza can then begin in the left-hand column as an "opposite" or a phonetic correspondence to what preceded it in the right-hand column. Then the fourth stanza might be an "opposite" or sound correspondence to what preceded it in the left-hand column, and so forth. When the poem is completed, the echo of the last phrase, line, or sentence, generally serves as the title.
Étrécissements — Collage is perceived as an additive method of visual poetry whereas étrécissements are a reductive. The results are achieved by the cutting away of parts of images to encourage a new image, by means of a pair of scissors or any other manipulative sharpened instrument.
Fumage — A technique in which impressions are made by the smoke of a candle or kerosene lamp on a piece of paper or canvas.
Heatage — An automatic technique in which an exposed but unfixed negative is heated from below, causing the emulsion (and the resulting image, when developed) to distort in a random fashion.
Latent news — a game in which an article from a newspaper is cut into individual words (or perhaps phrases) and then rapidly reassembled; see also Cut-up technique.
Paranoiac-critical method — A technique invented by Salvador Dalí which consists of the artists invoking a paranoid state (fear of the self is being manipulated, targeted or controlled by others). The result is the deconstruction of the psychological concept of identity, such as that subjectivity becomes the primary aspect of the artwork.
Soufflage — A Surrealist technique in which liquid paint is blown to inspire or reveal an image.
Bulletism — Shooting ink at a blank piece of paper. The artist can then develop images based on what is seen.
Coulage — A kind of automatic or involuntary sculpture made by pouring a molten material (such as metal, wax, chocolate or white chocolate) into cold water. As the material cools it takes on what appears to be a random form, though the physical properties of the materials involved may lead to a conglomeration of discs or spheres. The artist may use a variety of techniques to affect the outcome.
Decalcomania — A process of spreading thick paint upon a canvas then—while it is wet—covering it with further material such as paper or aluminum foil. This covering is then removed (again before the paint dries), and the resultant paint pattern becomes the basis of the finished painting.
Éclaboussure — A process in Surrealist painting where oil paints or watercolors are laid down and water or turpentine is splattered, then soaked up to reveal random splatters or dots where the media was removed. This technique gives the appearance of space and atmosphere.
Exquisite corpse — A method by which a collection of words or images are collectively assembled. It is based on an old parlor game known by the same name in which players wrote in turn on a sheet of paper, folded it to conceal part of the writing, and then passed it to the next player for a further contribution.
Games — In Surrealism, games are important not only as a form of recreation but as a method of investigation. The intention is to cut away the constraints of rationalism and allow concepts to develop more freely and in a more random manner. The aim is to break traditional thought patterns and create a more original outcome. Old games such as Exquisite corpse, and newer ones, notably Time Travelers' Potlatch and Parallel Collage, have played a critical role.
Time Travelers' Potlatch is a game in which two or more players say what gift they would give to another person - this is usually an historical person who played a role in, or had an influence on, the formation of Surrealism.
Indecipherable writing — In addition to its obvious meaning of writing that is illegible or for whatever other reason cannot be made out by the reader, indecipherable writing refers to a set of automatic techniques, most developed by Romanian surrealists and falling under the heading of surautomatism. Examples include entoptic graphomania, fumage and the movement of liquid down a vertical surface.
Movement of liquid down a vertical surface — As the name suggests, a technique invented by Romanian Surrealists and said to be surautomatic and a form of indecipherable writing, of making pictures by dripping or allowing a flow of some sort of liquid down a vertical surface.
Parsemage — A surrealist and automatic method in the visual arts in which dust from charcoal or colored chalk is scattered on the surface of water and then skimmed off by passing a stiff paper or cardboard just under the water's surface.
Surautomatism — Any theory or act of taking automatism to its most absurd limits.
Calligramme — A text or poem of a type, in which the words or letters make up a shape, particularly a shape connected to the subject of the text or poem.
Cubomania — A method of making collages in which a picture or image is cut into squares and the squares are then reassembled without regard for the image.
Dream résumé — Takes the form of an employment résumé but chronicles its subject's achievements, employments, or the like, in dreams, rather than in waking life. Sometimes dream résumés contain the achievements of both, however.
Entopic graphomania — A surrealist and automatic method of drawing in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots; these can either be "curved lines... or straight lines."
Frottage — A method of creation in which one takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a "rubbing" over a textured surface. The drawing can either be left as it is or used as the basis for further refinement.
Grattage — A surrealist technique in painting in which (usually wet) paint is scraped of the canvas.
Involuntary sculpture — Surrealism describes "involuntary sculpture" those made by absent-mindedly manipulating something, such as rolling and unrolling a movie ticket, bending a paper clip, and so forth.
Outagraphy — A photograph in which the subject, what the photograph is "of" is cut out.
Photomontage — Making of composite picture by cutting and joining a number of photographs.
Triptography — An automatic photographic technique whereby a roll of film is used three times (either by the same photographer or three different photographers), causing it to be triple-exposed in such a way that the chances of any single photograph having a clear and definite subject is nearly impossible.