Dada is an artistic and literary movement group which began in Switzerland, the movement arose during WW1 as many people were beginning to believe it was led by nationalism. The Dada movement included many arts including  performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage. Dada evolved around making a mockery out of materialistic and nationalistic views and attitudes. This art was always very experimental and unusual which has heavily influenced how people approach art in the modern world, people often try to replicate their political and aesthetic approach to art.  

Dada was the direct antecedent to the conceptual art movement where the focus of the artists was not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that often upended bourgeois sensibilities and that generated difficult questions about society, the role of the artist, and the purpose of art.

So intent were members of Dada on opposing all norms of bourgeois culture that the group was barely in favour of itself: "Dada is anti-Dada," they often cried. The group's founding in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich was appropriate: the Cabaret was named after the 18th century French satirist, Voltaire, whose novella Candide mocked the idiocies of his society. As Hugo Ball, one of the founders of both the Cabaret and Dada wrote, "This is our Candide against the times."

Artists like Hans Arps were intent on incorporating chance into the creation of works of art. This went against all norms of traditional art production whereby a work was meticulously planned and completed. The introduction of chance was a way for Dadaists to challenge artistic norms and to question the role of the artist in the artistic process.

Dada artists are known for their use of ready-mades- everyday objects that could be bought and presented as art with little manipulation by the artist. The use of the readymade forced questions about artistic creativity and the very definition of art and its purpose in society.