Editorial Introduction
On Surrealism as a Method of Survival
This article was first published as a preprint on Zenodo.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18058954
The author of the article is the Editor-in-Chief of JP Independent Journal.
Coverage follows JP’s editorial policy on editor-authored works.
Surrealism as a Method of Survival proposes a reading of surrealism that departs from its conventional framing as a dream-based, symbolic, or emancipatory artistic practice. Instead, the article approaches surrealism as a defensive structure, emerging under conditions where direct representation becomes socially or politically unsafe.
Drawing on practice-based research and auto-theoretical analysis, the author situates surrealist form within environments marked by epistemic threat—contexts in which visibility itself carries risk. In this framework, surrealism does not function to resolve contradiction or liberate meaning, but to regulate exposure: allowing certain truths to appear partially, temporarily, and without triggering immediate systemic collapse.
The article’s central case study, The Dance of the Rabbits (2015), is used to examine how ordinary objects and images can activate latent structures of violence when displaced from their “safe” contexts. Rather than treating these objects as symbols, the article emphasizes their role as perceptual triggers within preloaded social systems.
JP Independent Journal presents this work not as a definitive theoretical statement, but as a contribution to ongoing discussions around censorship, perception, denial, and the politics of representation. The article raises questions relevant to film theory, visual culture, and trauma studies, particularly concerning the relationship between form, survival, and the management of truth under pressure.
Editorial desk
JP Independent Journal
JP Independent Journal 